The one-step synthesis of porous carbon nanoflakes possessing a 3D texture is achieved by cooking (carbonization) a mixture containing two condiments, sodium glutamate (SG) and sodium chloride, which are commonly used in kitchens. The prepared 3D porous carbons are composed of interconnected carbon nanoflakes and possess instinct heteroatom doping such as nitrogen and oxygen, which furnishes the electrochemical activity. The combination of micropores and mesopores with 3D configurations facilitates persistent and fast ion transport and shorten diffusion pathways for high-performance supercapacitor applications. Sodium glutamate carbonized at 800 °C exhibits high charge storage capacity with a specific capacitance of 320 F g(-1) in 6 m KOH at a current density of 1 A g(-1) and good stability over 10,000 cycles.

This work reports a facile strategy for the preparation of Nitrogen-doped porous carbons via carbonization of a mixture containing ferric citrate (FC) and ammonium chloride (NH 4 Cl). FC provides carbon and iron element sources, while ammonium chloride acts as both the porogen and nitrogen dopant during the carbonization process. The formed hierarchical porous structures facilitate the ion diffusion/transport, and nitrogen-doping provides more active sites, which contribute to both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and supercapacitor applications. Compared with KOH and NaCl, the utilization of NH 4 Cl as porogen shows the best ORR performance in this work might due to the dual functions of NH 4 Cl. Ferric citrate-NH 4 Cl carbonized at 700 o C exhibits good capacity of 242 F g-1 and stability in 6 M KOH at a current density of 1 A g-1. Since both FC and NH 4 Cl are cheap and easily available, this work provides a facile and effective method to obtain carbons with superb electrochemical performances.

A facile and efficient strategy for the synthesis of heteroatom-doped carbon materials was developed, in which host-guest inclusion complexes were employed as versatile precursors. Inclusion of heteroatom containing guest molecules in the cavity of host molecules (such as cyclodextrins and cucurbit[n]urils) not only doped the carbon frameworks with heteroatoms (for instance, nitrogen, sulfur, boron, fluorine and iron), but also highly improved the carbonization yield. Since the chemical structure (composition) of host-guest inclusion complexes can be finely tuned at molecular level, they are ideal small molecular precursors for heteroatoms doped carbon materials. A nitrogen-doped porous carbon material derived from inclusion complexes exhibited a high performance as supercapacitors electrode with a high specific capacitance (348 F g-1) at a current density of 1 A g-1 in 6 M KOH aqueous solution and good cycling stability over 5000 cycles, demonstrating its potential application in energy storage.

A simple strategy for the synthesis of heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials (CMs) via using ionic liquid (IL)-doped alkali organic salts as small molecular precursors is developed. Doping of alkali organic salts (such as sodium glutamate, sodium tartrate, and sodium citrate) with heteroatoms containing ILs (including 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chlorine and 3-butyl-4-methythiazolebromination) not only incorporates the heteroatoms into the carbon frameworks but also highly improves the carbonization yield, as compared with that of either alkali organic salts or ILs as precursors. The porous structure of CMs can be tuned by adjusting the feed ratio of ILs. The porous CMs derived from 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chlorine-doped sodium glutamate exhibit high charge storage capacity with a specific capacitance of 287 F g(-1) and good stability over 5000 cycles in 6 m KOH at a current density of 1 A g(-1) for supercapacitors. This strategy opens a simple and efficient method for the synthesis of heteroatom-doped porous CMs.