N-doped nanoporous carbons for the supercapacitor application by the template carbonization of glucose: The systematic comparison of different nitridation agents

• Azodicarbonamide serves as efficient nitrogen source for N-doped carbon.
• A template carbonization method is implemented to produce N-doped porous carbon.
• The carbon materials exhibit large surface areas and pore volumes.
• The N-doped carbon materials deliver superior electrochemical behaviors for supercapacitor applications.

A series of N-doped nanoporous carbons are prepared via a synchronous template carbonization and nitridation method, in which glucose serves as carbon precursor, azodicarbonamide (ADC), urea and melamine as nitridation agents and templates. Results indicate that all the obtained carbon materials deliver the amorphous features with low graphitization degree. The Carbon-G-A sample prepared by heating glucose and ADC at 800 °C exhibits high surface area of 624.8 m2 g−1, large total pore volume of 0.53 cm3 g−1 and fairly high nitrogen content of 10.35%. The Carbon-G-A sample delivers superior electrochemical performance, whose specific capacitance can reach up to 202.7 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1. What’s more, it exhibits long-term cycling ability of 92.3% retention even after 5000 cycles. Besides, in the cases of urea and melamine as nitrogen sources, the resultant nitrogen-containing carbons deliver smaller porosities and lower nitrogen contents, but also acceptable specific capacitances of 148.7 and 126.1 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, respectively. It opens a straightforward and easy protocol to convert inexpensive glucose into highly capacitive nitrogen-doped nanoporous carbon materials, using ADC, urea and melamine as nitrogen sources.