Abstract

Based on the high proportion of nitrogen content and natural pore structure of leather, this paper uses discarded leather as a raw material to prepare a nitrogen-doped leather-based free-standing carbon sheet by a high-temperature carbonisation-air activation method. The porous carbon sheets are prepared with a relatively high surface area, and there are some partial micropores and mesopores in the well-interconnected macropores. The results show that the carbon sheets reveal a lower internal resistance in the 6mol L-1 KOH electrolyte used as a supercapacitor electrode. When the current density is 0.5A.g-1, ALCS-300 (Activated Leather Carbon Slices) obtains a specific capacitance of 136.5F.g-1. In addition, it has excellent cycle stability. After 5000 cycles at a current density of 1A.g-1, the specific capacity retention rate is 94.5%. Since it eliminates the need to add any chemical reagents and is low in cost during the carbonisation-activation (air) process, it does not require additional adhesives, conductive agents and current collectors during electrode assembly, which can further simplify the assembly process, so it provides a good alternative to carbon electrodes for energy storage device.