Porous Carbon Prepared from Coal Tar Pitch was Doped with N/S to Prepare Supercapacitors
5 affiliations
- 1Yulin University , , No. 51 Chongwen Road , ,
- 2Ningxia University , , ,
- 3Sun Yat-Sen University , , ,
- 4Chinese Academy of Sciences , , ,
- 5Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education , ,
Abstract
Coal tar pitch (CTP), a hazardous coal-chemical byproduct, requires high-value recycling for sustainable energy applications, yet precise structural and electrochemical regulation of pitch-derived carbon materials remains challenging. Herein, a facile postcarbonization N/S codoping strategy via thiourea-assisted hydrothermal treatment is developed to optimize porous carbon for supercapacitors. Traditional one-step inorganic doping severely damages carbon frameworks and restricts pore development, while hydrothermal-first preparation also delivers inferior porous structures. To overcome these drawbacks, we adopt a sequential strategy: preconstructing hierarchical porous carbon skeleton followed by thiourea-mediated N/S doping. This method well preserves carbon integrity and porous features, overcoming the inherent deficiencies of conventional doping routes. Combined SEM, XRD, and Raman results verify that this strategy enhances graphitization by eliminating amorphous carbon while maintaining intact porous architecture. The optimized PC–NS–2 sample possesses an ultrahigh micropore proportion of 97% and a large specific surface area of 1426.73 m2/g. It achieves a specific capacitance of 307 F g–1 at 0.5 A/g and maintains 93.98% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles at 5 A/g, showing superior electrochemical kinetics and cycling stability. The assembled symmetric supercapacitor delivers an energy density of 27.8 Wh/kg at 0.5 A/g. Such excellent performance benefits from well-preserved hierarchical pores, optimized graphitization and improved conductivity brought by N/S codoping. This work provides an efficient structure-stable doping strategy for CTP high-value utilization and offers a feasible reference for advanced carbon electrode design.
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BibTeX
@article{jia2026porous,
title = {{Porous Carbon Prepared from Coal Tar Pitch was Doped with N/S to Prepare Supercapacitors}},
author = {Renjie Jia and Chen Yang and Tong Li and Cuiying Lu and Yan Zhang and Ting Su and Rui Bai and Xingbin Yan and Bingjun Yang and Huarui Hao},
journal = {ACS omega},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/acsomega.6c05731},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13670282},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Porous Carbon Prepared from Coal Tar Pitch was Doped with N/S to Prepare Supercapacitors
AU - Renjie Jia
AU - Chen Yang
AU - Tong Li
AU - Cuiying Lu
AU - Yan Zhang
AU - Ting Su
AU - Rui Bai
AU - Xingbin Yan
AU - Bingjun Yang
AU - Huarui Hao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
JO - ACS omega
DO - 10.1021/acsomega.6c05731
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13670282
AB - Coal tar pitch (CTP), a hazardous coal-chemical byproduct, requires high-value recycling for sustainable energy applications, yet precise structural and electrochemical regulation of pitch-derived carbon materials remains challenging. Herein, a facile postcarbonization N/S codoping strategy via thiourea-assisted hydrothermal treatment is developed to optimize porous carbon for supercapacitors. Traditional one-step inorganic doping severely damages carbon frameworks and restricts pore development, while hydrothermal-first preparation also delivers inferior porous structures. To overcome these drawbacks, we adopt a sequential strategy: preconstructing hierarchical porous carbon skeleton followed by thiourea-mediated N/S doping. This method well preserves carbon integrity and porous features, overcoming the inherent deficiencies of conventional doping routes. Combined SEM, XRD, and Raman results verify that this strategy enhances graphitization by eliminating amorphous carbon while maintaining intact porous architecture. The optimized PC–NS–2 sample possesses an ultrahigh micropore proportion of 97% and a large specific surface area of 1426.73 m2/g. It achieves a specific capacitance of 307 F g–1 at 0.5 A/g and maintains 93.98% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles at 5 A/g, showing superior electrochemical kinetics and cycling stability. The assembled symmetric supercapacitor delivers an energy density of 27.8 Wh/kg at 0.5 A/g. Such excellent performance benefits from well-preserved hierarchical pores, optimized graphitization and improved conductivity brought by N/S codoping. This work provides an efficient structure-stable doping strategy for CTP high-value utilization and offers a feasible reference for advanced carbon electrode design.
SN - 2470-1343
ER -