Tunable N-doped or dual N, S-doped activated hydrothermal carbons derived from human hair and glucose for supercapacitor applications

• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2013.06.065
• Publication Date: 2013-06-27T18:47:55Z
• Authors: Weijiang Si; Jin Zhou; Shumei Zhang; Shijiao Li; Wei Xing; Shuping Zhuo
• Keywords: Heteroatom; Carbon fibers; Specific surface area

Abstract In this work, human hair was firstly used to prepared heteroatom-doped carbon materials. Tunable N-doped or dual N, S-doped microporous carbons were successful prepared using glucose and human hair as carbon precursors via a method of hydrothermal carbonization procedure and sequent KOH activation. The electrochemical capacitive performance of the prepared carbons was investigated in KOH electrolyte. The morphology, structure and surface properties of the carbon materials are investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N2 adsorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The N- or S-doping could be tuned by controlling the dosage of human hair additives. Due to the synergistic effect of multi N, O, S-doped species, the prepared carbons showed large pseudo-capacitance. The capacitance of AHC-4 could reach 264 F g−1 in KOH electrolyte. AHC-1 shows an acceptable cycle life with relatively high capacitance value of 154 F g−1 after 1000 cycles. The present preparation method is attractive and inspiring for preparation of tunable dual heteroatom-doped carbon materials with high surface area and capacitive performance using renewable biomass.