Porous Carbon Material Derived from Steam-Exploded Poplar for Supercapacitor: Insights into Synergistic Effect of KOH and Urea on the Structure and Electrochemical Properties

The electrochemical performance of supercapacitors using porous carbon as electrodes is strongly affected by the fabrication process of carbon material. KOH is commonly used as an activator combined with urea as a nitrogen dopant. However, the roles of KOH and urea in pore structure configuration and the electrochemical behavior of porous carbon electrodes are still ambiguous. Herein, the optimum porous carbon is obtained when KOH and urea are used simultaneously. KOH is used as a pore-forming substance, whereas urea is employed as a nitrogen source for the nitrogen doping of porous carbon, which increases its defect sites while reducing the graphitization degree. More importantly, urea also expands pores as a pore-enlarging agent, inducing interconnected porous structures. As a result, a hierarchical porous structure is formed and ascribed to the synergistic effect of KOH and urea, and the specific surface area reached 3282 m2 g-1 for sample PC800-4. The specific capacitance is 319 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 with excellent cycling stability over 2500 cycles. Furthermore, the symmetric supercapacitor reaches an excellent energy density of 11.6 W h kg-1 under 70.0 W kg-1 in a 6 M KOH electrolyte. Our work contributes to the rational designation of the porous carbon structure for supercapacitor applications.