Ammonium Nitrate-Assisted Synthesis of Nitrogen/Sulfur-Codoped Hierarchically Porous Carbons Derived from Ginkgo Leaf for Supercapacitors

Biomass-derived carbons for supercapacitors provide a promising and sustainable strategy to address the worldwide energy and climate change challenges. Here, we have designed and constructed three-dimensional nitrogen/sulfur-codoped hierarchically porous carbons for high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials in a one-step process, in which ginkgo leaf is used as a carbon source and S source and ammonium nitrate (AN) is used as an activating agent and a N source. During the synchronous carbonization and activation process, AN could be decomposed completely into gaseous byproducts and be removed easily without leaving residues after product formation. The as-synthesized ginkgo leaf-derived carbons exhibited a high specific capacitance of 330.5 F g–1 at a current density of 0.5 A g–1 and a capacitance of 252 F g–1 even at a high current density of 10 A g–1 with an excellent capacitance retention of 85.8% after 10 000 cycles in 6 mol L–1 KOH electrolyte. The present study provides an efficient, sustainable, and facile approach to prepare renewable hierarchically porous carbons as advanced electrode materials for energy storage and conversion.