Dictyophora-Derived N-Doped Porous Carbon Microspheres for High-Performance Supercapacitor

In this paper, natural dictyophora has been used as a precursor to synthesize nitrogen-doped porous carbon microspheres (PCMS) by hydrothermal carbonization and subsequent KOH activation at different temperatures (650-850 °C). This unique structure of PCMS is conducive to the penetration and mobility of ions. The PCMS are characterized by different analysis technologies and their capacitive performance are investigated. The results indicate that the PCMS activated at 750 °C (PCMS-750) exhibit the highest specific capacitance, 380 F g-1, at the current density of 1 A g-1. The excellent electrochemical performance can be attributed to the novel porous microspheres structure and effective N self-doping. The symmetric supercapacitor devices based on the PCMS-750 electrodes exhibit high energy density (27.50 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 899.9 W kg-1) and excellent cycle stability (94.1% after 10,000 cycles). Such a high-performance manifests that the PCMS-750 electrodes will be potential candidates for clean energy storage.