Easy preparation of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanospheres and their application in supercapacitors

An easy method for preparing porous carbon nanospheres is presented by using commercial spherical poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) as precursors. The PVDF nanospheres are simply converted to porous carbon nanospheres by a low temperature defluorination treatment with an organic alkali and followed high temperature carbonization. The as-prepared carbon exhibits monodispersed spherical morphology with size of ~170 nm, porous structure with a surface area of 523 m2 g−1 and nitrogen-doped functionality, which affords a capacitance of 190 F g−1 with good rate capability in 6 mol L−1 KOH.