Biomass-Derived Hard Carbon and Nitrogen-Sulfur Co-Doped Graphene for High-Performance Symmetric Sodium Ion Capacitor Devices

An inexpensive bio-mass-derived hard carbon from tamarind pods was used as an anode, and nitrogen and nitrogen (N)/sulfur (S) co-doped graphene were used as a cathode for novel hybrid Na-ion supercapacitors. The structural and surface morphological analyses are investigated using a range of techniques. The 3D network of the heteroatom-doped graphene skeleton edges for N and NS-doping conformations were assigned as N-RGOs (N1s-5.09 at.%) and NS-RGOs (N1s-7.66 at.% and S1s-2.22 at.%) based on energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy elemental mapping. The negative electrode (T-HC) hard carbon was pre-treated by pre-sodiation with a half-cell process by galvanostatic charge-discharge in a sodium-ion battery at 0.01-2.5 V vs. Na/Na+. The T-HC//NS-RGO, T-HC//N-RGO, and T-HC//RGO were used to construct the Na-ion supercapacitor device. In the CV experiments, the electrochemical galvanostatic charge-discharge was studied at 1.0-4.2 V. The specific capacitance was 352.18 F/g for the T.HC/NS-RGO device and 180.93 F/g for the T.HC/N-RGO device; both were symmetric devices. T.HC/NS-RGO device performance revealed excellent cycling stability, with T-HC//NS-RGO showing 89.26% capacitance retention over 5000 cycles. A carbon-carbon symmetric device, such as a Na-ion hybrid capacitor, can exhibit the characteristics of both batteries and supercapacitors for future electric vehicles.