Emulsion-assisted interfacial polymerization strategy: Controllable architectural engineering of anisotropic and isotropic nanoparticles for high-performance supercapacitors

Anisotropic nanoparticles have attracted extensive attention due to their potential applications in material transport, energy storage, and biopharmaceutical. However, due to the inadequate understanding of microscopic particle formation, controllable asymmetric growth is still a great challenge. Herein, we report a facile emulsion-assisted interfacial polymerization strategy for the synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon particles (NPCPs) with tunable anisotropic/isotropic architectures. During the synthesis process, we can form emulsion droplets with different nanostructures directionally through dual routes, thereby assisting and mediating the polymerization and growth process of the monomer to obtain poly-diaminopyridine nanoparticles with various architectures. The corresponding NPCPs with tunable specific surface area (125-362m(2)g(-1)), nitrogen content (10%-14%), and diverse morphologies can be acquired by calcination under N-2 atmosphere at 700 degrees C. The synergetic effect of abundant microporous structures and active nitrogen species content contributes to improve the physicochemical properties, while the unique anisotropic architecture increases the charge diffusion efficiency and enhances the high-rate stability. Therefore, the resultant NPCPs electrode exhibits a specific capacitance up to 275Fg(-1) at 0.2Ag(-1) and surface-area-normalized capacitance of 83.0 mu Fcm(-2), indicating a promising material for high-performance supercapacitors.