Nitrogen self-doped activated carbons via the direct activation of Samanea saman leaves for high energy density supercapacitors

In this study, nitrogen self-doped activated carbons (ACs) obtained via the direct activation of Samanea saman green leaves (SSLs) for high energy density supercapacitors were investigated. The SSL-derived direct-activated carbons (hereinafter referred to SD-ACs) were synthesized by impregnating sodium hydroxide as an activating agent and heating up to 720 °C without a hydrothermal carbonization or pyrolysis step. The optimum condition was investigated by varying the weight ratio of raw SSLs to NaOH. Surpassing the ACs derived from the two-step convention method, SD-ACs showed superior properties, including a higher surface area (2930 m(2) g(−1)), total pore volume (1.37 cm(3) g(−1)) and nitrogen content (4.6 at%). Moreover, SD-ACs exhibited enhanced electrochemical properties with specific gravimetric and volumetric capacitances of 179 F g(−1) and 88 F cm(−3) in an organic electrolyte, respectively, a high capacitance retention of approximately 87% at a current density of 0.5 A g(−1) and excellent cycling stability of 97.5% after 3000 cycles at a current density of 5 A g(−1). Moreover, the potential window of the supercapacitor cell was extended to 3.5 V with a significantly enhanced energy density of up to 79 W h kg(−1). These results demonstrate that the direct activation of nitrogen-enriched SSLs offers advantages in terms of simplicity, low-cost and sustainable synthetic route to achieve nitrogen self-doped ACs for high energy density supercapacitors, which exhibit superior properties to that of ACs prepared via the conventional method.