Sustainable Polyvinyl Chloride-Derived Soft Carbon Anodes for Potassium-Ion Storage: Electrochemical Behaviors and Mechanism.

Soft carbon is a promising anode material for potassium-ion batteries due to its favorable properties such as low cost, high conductivity, stable capacity, and low potential platform. Polyvinyl chloride, as a white pollutant, is a soft carbon precursor that can be carbonized at varying temperatures to produce soft carbons with controllable defect and crystal structures. This work investigates the effect of carbonization temperature on the crystalline structures of the obtained soft carbons.

Synergistic effect of nitrogen and oxygen dopants in 3D hierarchical porous carbon cathodes for ultra-fast zinc ion hybrid supercapacitors.

Zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitor is one of the most promising electrochemical energy storage devices for the applications needing both high energy densities and power densities. Nitrogen doping is an effective way to enhance the capacitive performance of porous carbon cathodes in zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitor. However, accurate evidence is yet needed to demonstrate how nitrogen dopants influence the charge storage of Zn and H cations.

Molten Salt Self-Template Synthesis Strategy of Oxygen-Rich Porous Carbon Cathodes for Zinc Ion Hybrid Capacitors.

Porous carbon materials are widely used in capacitive energy storage devices because of their chemical stability, low cost, and controllable textures. Molten salt self-template methods are powerful and sustainable synthesis strategies for preparing porous carbons with tunable pore textures and surface chemistries. Herein, we propose a self-template synthesis strategy for preparing oxygen-rich porous carbons (ORC) by directly carbonizing potassium chloroacetate (ClCHCOOK) as the single carbon source.

Enzymatic Hydrolysis Lignin-Derived Porous Carbons through Ammonia Activation: Activation Mechanism and Charge Storage Mechanism.

The low energy density and low cost performance of electrochemical capacitors (ECs) are the principal factors that limit the wide applications of ECs. In this work, we used enzymatic hydrolysis lignin as the carbon source and an ammonia activation methodology to prepare nitrogen-doped lignin-derived porous carbon (NLPC) electrode materials with high specific surface areas. We elucidated the free radical mechanism of ammonia activation and the relationship between nitrogen doping configurations, doping levels, and preparation temperatures.