Novel Synthesis of Nitrogen-Containing Bio-Phenol Resin and Its Molten Salt Activation of Porous Carbon for Supercapacitor Electrode

Nitrogen hybridization is an attractive way to enhance the wettability and electric conductivity of porous carbon, which increases the capacitance of carbon-based supercapacitor, however, there is lack of low-cost methods to prepare the nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials. Herein, a novel facile nitrogen-containing bio-phenolic resin was synthesized by polymerization of the carbamate bio-oil, Phenol and paraformaldehyde. As a precursor of nitrogen-doped porous carbon, the nitrogen-containing bio-phenol resin was activated by the one-step molten-salt method. The resultant nitrogen-doped porous carbon showed a high specific surface area up to 1401 m(2)·g(−1). As a supercapacitor electrode, the nitrogen-doped porous carbons showed specific capacitance of 159 F·g(−1) at 0.5 A·g(−1). It also exhibited high cyclic stability with 94.8% retention of the initial specific capacitance over 1000 charge-discharge cycles at 1.0 A·g(−1). The results suggest that these nitrogen-containing bio-phenol resin provide a new source of nitrogen-doped porous carbon for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes.