Development of High-Performance Supercapacitor based on a Novel Controllable Green Synthesis for 3D Nitrogen Doped Graphene

Abstract

3D sponge nitrogen doped graphene (NG) was prepared economically from waste polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) bottles mixed with urea at different temperatures using green approach via a novel one-step method. The effect of temperature and the amount of urea on the formation of NG was investigated. Cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy measurements, revealed that nitrogen fixation, which affects the structure and morphology of prepared materials improve the charge propagation and ion diffusion. The prepared materials show outstanding performance as a supercapacitor electrode material, with the specific capacitance going up to 405 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. An energy density of 68.1 W h kg−1 and a high maximum power density of 558.5 W kg−1 in 6 M KOH electrolytes were recorded for the optimum sample. The NG samples showed an appropriate cyclic stability with capacitance retention of 87.7% after 5000 cycles at 4 A g−1 with high charge/discharge duration. Thus, the prepared NG herein is considered to be promising, cheap material used in energy storage applications and the method used is cost-effective and environmentally friendly method for mass production of NG in addition to opening up opportunities to process waste materials for a wide range of applications.

Nitrogen-Doped Graphene: The Influence of Doping Level on the Charge-Transfer Resistance and Apparent Heterogeneous Electron Transfer Rate

“…Doping graphene with heteroatoms such as nitrogen [4,5], boron [6,7], sulfur [8,9] or halogens [10,11] can adjust the electronic and electrochemical properties of the material leading to enhanced performances. Among the heteroatoms, nitrogen has drawn a lot of attention due to the significantly improved properties of the N-graphene as part of fuel cells [12], lithium ion batteries [13], supercapacitors [14] or advanced catalyst support [15,16]. Nitrogen doping can be achieved using different approaches: mixing graphene with nitrogen containing precursor and thermal annealing [17,18]; thermal exfoliation of graphite oxide in ammonia atmosphere [19]; solvothermal or hydrothermal methods using graphene oxide and Shift base precursors [20][21][22], chemical vapor deposition [23] or microwave plasma [24].…”

Controllable Carbonization of Plastic Waste into Three-Dimensional Porous Carbon Nanosheets by Combined Catalyst for High Performance Capacitor

“…Up to now, many research works have been published on recycling of PET waste [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. For example, Elessawy et al mixed PET waste with urea to react in autoclave reactor to prepare 3D sponge nitrogen-doped graphene [ 16 ]. The prepared N-doped graphene shows excellent specific capacitance and energy density.…”

Upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste to microporous carbon structure for energy storage

“…For instance, Elessawy and co-workers fabricated a nitrogen doped 3D porous structure with good electrochemical performance via the reduction of PET utilizing urea at elevated temperatures. 50 Moreover, the porosity and accessible surface area can be increased through various chemical treatments such as chemical etching utilizing K 2 CO 3 and KOH that react with carbon at elevated temperature to generate additional pores. 51 Different exfoliation strategies including mechanical exfoliation, 52,53 electrochemical intercalation, 54 and chemical oxidation 55 can be employed to further activate the material and facilitate the ion diffusion by breaking the interlayer attractions which can introduce new active sites.…”