Nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon from polyaniline/silica self-aggregates for supercapacitor

In this paper, nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon (N-HPC) was prepared from polyaniline (PANI)/silica self-aggregates. H-bonding between N\\H groups in aniline/PANI and\\OH groups in nano silica template led to a self-assembly type, which enabled the formation of uniform N-HPC nanoparticles. Silica self-aggregates provided macroporous channels resulted in a decreased diffusion distance. After removing the hard template, the N-HPC had a high surface area (899 m²·g^-1). Owing to two co-existed synergetic energy-storage mechanisms and the hierarchical porous structure, the obtained N-HPC exhibited a high specific capacitance of 218.75 F·g^-1 at 0.5 A·g^-1, compared with the nonporous nitrogen-doped carbon (N-C) derived from pure PANI. Moreover, the N-HPC electrode demonstrated excellent cycle life, retaining 99% of its initial specific capacitance after 1000 cycles.