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Facile synthesis and capacitance properties of N-doped porous carbon/iron oxide composites through the single-step pyrolysis of coal-based polyaniline

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Abstract

N-doped porous carbon (NPC)/iron oxide (FexOy) composites with rich nanoscale meso–macropores and high specific capacitances are successfully synthesized through a facile single-step pyrolysis approach, using coal-based polyaniline prepared through an in-situ polymerization method as a carbon and nitrogen source, and ferric citrate aqueous solution as a catalyst precursor. In NPC/FexOy, porous carbon mainly presents in the amorphous state. Nitrogen is successfully doped into NPC in the form of graphitic N, pyrrolic N, and pyridinic N. FexOy sphere particles with the diameter of 50–500 nm are embedded in the pores or on the surface of porous carbon. The NPC yield is about 65.4% and the nitrogen content is 0.122 wt%. The BET specific surface area and average pore width are 224.6 m2/g and 3.8 nm, respectively. NPC/FexOy composites demonstrate a high specific capacitance of 449 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g, good cycling stability, high capacitance retention of 88.2% at 5.0 A/g after 5000 cycles of charge and discharge, and good rate capability. Compared with NPC/FexOy from the pyrolysis of coal or polyaniline, NPC/FexOy from coal-based polyaniline possesses much better capacitance properties for owning a large number of evenly distributed and nanoscale meso–macropores greatly contributed by some interpenetrating network structures of coal-based polyaniline. This study will provide a facile and promising approach for the value-added applications of low-rank coal.

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Change history

  • 12 October 2017

    The original version of this article unfortunately contained the below equations in “Capacitance properties of NPC/FexOy composites” section which was not described, but was displayed in the article. The author wants to remove these equations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank for the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21406176) and China Scholarship Council Foundation ([2015]5103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, 710054, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoqin Wang, Yufei Yang, Yong Zhang, Qiaoqin Li, Ming Gong, Runlan Zhang & Shanxin Xiong

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  1. Xiaoqin Wang
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Correspondence to Xiaoqin Wang or Shanxin Xiong.

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Wang, X., Yang, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. Facile synthesis and capacitance properties of N-doped porous carbon/iron oxide composites through the single-step pyrolysis of coal-based polyaniline. J Porous Mater 25, 845–853 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-017-0497-8

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