One-step preparation of nitrogen-doped porous carbons with excellent properties for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract One-step preparation of nitrogen-doped porous carbon with high specific surface area and large pore volume was carried out by taking pre-treated chitosan as the carbon and nitrogen source and KOH as the activator. The prepared product with a chitosan/KOH mass ratio of 1: 1 had a specific surface area of 2952.9 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of 2.32 cm3 g−1. With 6 M KOH solution as the electrolyte, the specific capacitance of the product reached 325.6 F g−1(0.5 A g−1), and the performance did not degrade after 5000 cycles. The results indicate the potential of this product as a promising electrode material for supercapacitors.