High performance nitrogen-doped carbon for supercapacitor obtained by carbonizing eco-friendly and cheap polyaspartic acid

• Polyaspartic acid was used to prepare nitrogen-doped porous carbon.
• The morphologies and structures of carbon deeply depend on carbonization temperature.
• Carbon exhibits high specific capacitance and excellent cycling stability.
• The approach may be used in all amino acids to prepare nitrogen-doped carbon.

Nitrogen-doped porous carbon is prepared by carbonizing polyaspartic acid under inertia atmosphere without template and activation. The powder X-ray diffraction, element analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and N2 adsorption–desorption tests show that the morphologies and structures of the nitrogen-doped carbon samples deeply depend on carbonization temperature. Electrochemical measurements show that the specific capacitance of the PASP700 sample obtained at 700 °C is 166.1 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, and after 5000 charge/discharge cycles it still remains 97% which exhibits an excellent cycling stability.

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