Nest-like N-doped hierarchical porous active carbon formed by sacrifice template for enhanced supercapacitor

A nest-like N-doped hierarchical porous active carbon (N-HAC) with higher specific surface area is achieved successfully by melamine cyanurate (MCA) sacrifice template molding and assistant chemical activation of NH4Cl and CaCl2. The results testify that the nest-like hierarchical porous character of N-HAC can form an interconnecting structure and introduce plenty of supercapacitor reactive sites, which can facilitate the ion diffusion/migration among the material, while nitrogen doping in N-HAC can change the charge distribution of N-HAC and then promote the electron transfer. Attributing to the synergistic effect of the hierarchical porous structure and nitrogen doping, N-HAC800 displays the highest specific capacitance (284.6 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and 183.1 F g−1 even at 20 A g−1) and superior cycle stability (80.4% after 5000 cycles at 100 mV s−1). This study results prove that the N-doped hierarchical porous active carbon is a promising material for energy storage application in the future.