Abstract:
Three-dimensional (3D) carbon networks have been explored as promising capacitive materials thanks to their unique structural features such as large ion-accessible surface area and interconnected porous networks, thus enhancing both ions and electrons transport. Here, sustainable bacterial cellulose (BC) is used both precursor and template for facile synthesis of free-standing N, S-codoped 3D carbon networks (a-NSC) by the pyrolysis and activation of polyrhodanine coated BC. The synthesized a-NSC shows highly conductive interconnected porous networks (24 S·cm-1), large surface area (1 420 m2·g-1) with hierarchical meso-microporosity, and high-level heteroatoms codoping (N:3.1% in atom, S:3.2% in atom). Benefitting from these, a-NSC as binder-free electrode exhibits an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 340 F·g-1 (24 μF·cm-2) at the current density of 0.5 A·g-1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte, high-rate capability (71% at 20 A·g-1) and excellent cycle stability. Furthermore, the assembled symmetrical supercapacitor displays a much short time constant of 0.35 s in 1 M TEABF4/AN electrolyte, obtaining a maximum energy density of 32.1 W·h·kg-1 at power density of 637 W·kg-1. The in situ multi-heteroatoms doping enables biocellulose-derived carbon networks to exploit its full potentials in energy storage applications, which can be extended to other dimensional carbon nanostructures.