Hydrothermal Activation of Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Materials for Electrochemical Capacitors and Sodium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Highly porous nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials have distinct advantages in energy storage and conversion technologies. In the present work, hydrothermal treatments in water or ammonia solution were used for modification of mesoporous nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon, synthesized by deposition of acetonitrile vapors on the pyrolysis products of calcium tartrate. Morphology, composition, and textural characteristics of the original and activated materials were studied by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and nitrogen gas adsorption method. Both treatments resulted in a slight increase in specific surface area and volume of micropores and small mesopores due to the etching of carbon surface. Compared to the solely aqueous medium, activation with ammonia led to stronger destruction of the graphitic shells, the formation of larger micropores (1.4 nm vs 0.6 nm), a higher concentration of carbonyl groups, and the addition of nitrogen-containing groups. The tests of nitrogen-doped carbon materials as electrodes in 1M H2SO4 electrolyte and sodium-ion batteries showed improvement of electrochemical performance after hydrothermal treatments especially when ammonia was used. The activation method developed in this work is hopeful to open up a new route of designing porous nitrogen-doped carbon materials for electrochemical applications.

Oxygen and nitrogen enriched pectin-derived micro-meso porous carbon for CO2 uptake

“…3(a) illustrates a peak at around 3430 (cm −1 ), which is commonly assigned to stretching vibration of hydroxyl bands. 49 The peak at 3000 cm −1 indicates the C–H bond. The 1700 (cm −1 ) band is correlated to the stretching of C O bonds in carboxyl groups.…”

Carbon Dots Conjugated Antibody as an Effective FRET-Based Biosensor for Progesterone Hormone Screening

“…The peaks observed at 2818–2929, 2084–2364, 1627 and 1592 cm −1 are due to the stretching of the C–H bond, the nitrile C≡N bond, the amide C=O and the N–H bending, respectively. Besides, the peaks at 1350–1384, 1100–1266, and 617–669 cm −1 are assigned to C–O stretching or C–H bending, C–N stretching and C–C bending vibrations in the CDs [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ].…”

Defective structure of doped carbons obtained from preceramic polymers through Cl2‐ and NH3‐assisted thermolysis

“…In Figure 7A, the C1s peak centered at 285.5 should be assigned to graphite‐like Csp 2 (notice that Csp 3 appearing at 286.9 is not highlighted here) 53 . Nitrogen‐bonded to Csp 2 appears at about 287 eV, whereas the component at about 289 eV arises from carbon atoms bonded with oxygen through single and double bonds 54 . Nitrogen can adopt several configurations, including pyrrolic (two C–N bonds in a pentagon, appearing at 400.5 eV), quaternary N (N that replaced the carbon atoms in the graphene plane, appearing at 401.3 eV), and pyridinic oxide (N–O and N=O bonds in a hexagon, at 402–405 eV), as shown in Figure 7 53,55 …”

“…53 Nitrogen-bonded to Csp 2 appears at about 287 eV, whereas the component at about 289 eV arises from carbon atoms bonded with oxygen through single and double bonds. 54 Nitrogen can adopt several configurations, including pyrrolic (two C-N bonds in a pentagon, appearing at 400.5 eV), quaternary N (N that replaced the carbon atoms in the graphene plane, appearing at 401.3 eV), and pyridinic oxide (N-O and N=O bonds in a hexagon, at 402-405 eV), as shown in Figure 7. 53,55 The XPS spectra were deconvoluted by assuming Voigtshaped functions, and the intensity ratios of the bans were represented in Figure 7C,D (band areas given in the Supplementary Material S3).…”