Synthesis of wood derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon-polyaniline composites for supercapacitor electrode materials

This paper reports the first wood derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon-polyaniline (NKWC-PANI) composites, prepared with low-cost, environmentally friendly, and renewable wood wastes as raw materials, for supercapacitor electrode materials. Benefiting from high electrochemical activity of wood derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon (NKWC) and the synergetic effect between NKWC and polyaniline (PANI) particles, the electrode with the as-obtained NKWC-PANI composite as active material exhibits significantly higher specific capacitance than the electrodes based on pure NKWC and PANI. Moreover, this novel NKWC-PANI composite also shows comparable maximum specific capacitance (347 F g −1 at 2 A g −1 ) and energy density (44.4 W h kg −1 at 922 W kg −1 ) to some similar carbon-PANI composites. This work offers a promising method to produce carbon based composite electrode materials with high performance and low cost. Wood derived carbon-polyaniline composites exhibit comparable specific capacitance (347 F g −1 ) and energy density (44.4 W h kg −1 ) to similar materials.