Construction of the Porous Carbon Supercapacitors with Efficient Energy Storage by the Dissolution and Regeneration Strategy of Chitin

Chitin molecules are rich in nitrogen and oxygen elements, with great potential as a carbon-based electrode precursor. However, the direct preparation of chitin-based porous carbon materials (PCMs) often involves multiple complex carbonization processes, which increases the difficulty of large-scale applications, and the specific capacitance also needs to be further improved. Herein, the precursor of porous carbon was obtained by a one-step carbonization from regenerated chitin film after dissolving in lithium chloride and N,N-dimethylacetamide. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and morphological assessments showed that the hierarchical porous structure with high specific surface area (2332.0 m2 g–1) could be achieved under the activator of KOH. At 0.5 A g–1, it had a specific capacitance of 255.5 F g–1. It showed a capacitance retention rate of 91.89% after 5000 cycles, indicating good cycle stability. Therefore, the dissolution and regeneration strategy of chitin provides a new method for the preparation of PCMs used as a supercapacitor electrode.