N-doped crumpled carbon nanotubes as advanced electrode material for supercapacitor

Porous carbon nanotubes with high aspect ratios and interconnected conductive networks that can facilitate fast ion transport have been regarded as one of the most promising electrode materials for supercapacitors. Moreover, the crumpled surface can provide higher active area, greater contact probability and better wettability than other smooth carbon surface when used as electrode materials. Herein, we report a rapid template co-assembly method to synthesize N-doped crumpled carbon nanotubes (NCTs) using 3-aminophenol-formaldehyde resin (AM) as carbon and nitrogen precursor and halloysite act as template. The surface morphology of NCTs can be well adjusted by changing the amount of AM and reaction temperature, realizing transformation of different crumpled degree and wall thickness, which can significant impact on the electrochemical performance. The optimized NCTs shows a high capacitance of 336 F g−1, outstanding cycling stability (96.1% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles), and good rate performance, indicating the great potential for supercapacitor.