Nitrogen-doped bi-modal porous carbon nanostructure derived from glycine for supercapacitors

We prepared a nitrogen-doped bi-modal porous carbon nanostructure (G-500/20) using a template method with 500 and 20 nm SiO2 beads and glycine. The G500/20 has a surface area of 403 m2 g−1 with meso/macroporous structure and N-doping content of 5.9 at%. In the supercapacitor performance, G-500/20 exhibits superior specific capacitances of 19.5 and 5.3 F g−1 at 200 mV s−1 and 20 A g−1 in 6 M NaOH, compared to a commercial activated carbon. In particular, the superior capacitances of G500/20 at high scan rates and current densities were achieved due to the bi-modal porous structure and nitrogen doping effect.