B/N/O/Zn doped porous carbon materials for supercapacitor with high performance

Owing to the need for new-generation energy storage equipment and industrial application, the development of carbon electrode materials with comprehensive electrochemical performances and convenient production processes has become a top priority. In this study, B/N/O/Zn doped carbon materials were prepared using a simple one-step method with 4-(2,4,6-tricarboxylphenyl)-2,2′:6′,2′’-terpyridine (TT) as a raw material. Owing to the doping of many heteroatoms, particularly boron atoms, the optimized TT(Zn/B)-700 exhibits a large specific surface area, proper pore distribution from micropore to macropore, and high degree of graphitization. These structural and morphological features ensure high capacitance performance, such as a specific capacitance of 418.75F/g at 0.5 A/g, and a specific energy of 83.75 Wh/kg at 300 W/kg. In addition, the assembled symmetric supercapacitor exhibits excellent specific energy (5.88 Wh/kg at 150 W/kg, and 5.00 Wh/kg at 3000 W/kg) and specific capacitance (117.5 F/g at 0.5 A/g, and 100.0 F/g at 10 A/g). These carbon electrode materials demonstrate great potential for applications in high-performance supercapacitors.