Materials (Jul 2012)
Pseudocapacitive Effects of <em>N</em>-Doped Carbon Nanotube Electrodes in Supercapacitors
Abstract
Nitrogen- and micropore-containing carbon nanotubes (NMCNTs) were prepared by carbonization of nitrogen-enriched, polymer-coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and the electrochemical performances of the NMCNTs with different heteroatom contents were investigated. NMCNTs-700 containing 9.1 wt% nitrogen atoms had a capacitance of 190.8 F/g, which was much higher than that of pristine CNTs (48.4 F/g), despite the similar surface area of the two CNTs, and was also higher than that of activated CNTs (151.7 F/g) with a surface area of 778 m<sup>2</sup>/g and a nitrogen atom content of 1.2 wt%. These results showed that pseudocapacitive effects play an important role in the electrochemical performance of supercapacitor electrodes.
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