Issue 19, 2016

3D hierarchical porous N-doped carbon aerogel from renewable cellulose: an attractive carbon for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes and CO2 adsorption

Abstract

Hierarchical porous N-doped carbons have attracted great interest in energy storage and CO2 capture applications due to their unique porous structure and physicochemical properties. Fabrication of cost-effective and eco-friendly hierarchical porous N-doped carbons from renewable biomass resources is a sustainable route for future energy storage. However, it is still a big challenge to produce N-doped carbons with hierarchical porous structure from cellulose, which is the most abundant and widely available renewable resource on earth. Here, we designed a facile and effective strategy to produce hierarchical porous N-doped carbons from cellulose for high-performance supercapacitor and CO2 capture applications. In this method, hierarchical porous cellulose aerogels were first obtained via a dissolving–gelling process and then carbonized in NH3 atmosphere to give hierarchical porous N-doped carbon aerogels with more interconnected macropores and micropores. Due to the unique porous structure and physicochemical properties, the as-prepared N-doped carbon aerogels had a high specific capacitance of 225 F g−1 (0.5 A g−1) and an outstanding cycling stability. For the first time, we also demonstrated that this N-doped carbon aerogel exhibited a exceptional CO2 adsorption capacity of 4.99 mmol g−1, which is much higher than those of other porous carbons. This novel hierarchical porous N-doped carbon has great potential applications in CO2 capture, energy storage, porous supports, and electrochemical catalysis.

Graphical abstract: 3D hierarchical porous N-doped carbon aerogel from renewable cellulose: an attractive carbon for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes and CO2 adsorption

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Jan 2016
Accepted
29 Jan 2016
First published
01 Feb 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 15788-15795

3D hierarchical porous N-doped carbon aerogel from renewable cellulose: an attractive carbon for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes and CO2 adsorption

Y. Hu, X. Tong, H. Zhuo, L. Zhong, X. Peng, S. Wang and R. Sun, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 15788 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA00822D

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