Efficacy of nickel doped graphitic carbon nitride as energy storage material

Abstract The current article reports the synthesis of graphitic carbon nitride (GCN), through simple thermal decomposition of urea at a moderate temperature of 550 °C and doping of as-developed material with transition element like nickel. The proper phase formation of the sample was confirmed by x-ray diffraction whereas electron microscopic images analyzed the sample morphologies. The successful doping was verified by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy whereas thermogravimetric study predicted the stability of the material under elevated temperature. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy showed that after Ni doping there is a substantial change in the vibrational energy level of the sample. UV–vis reflectance spectra confirmed the reduction of optical bandgap after metal doping. The samples show promises towards supercapacitor application. Cyclic voltametric study shows that after metal doping the value of specific capacitance became 162 Fg −1 at scan rate 5 mV s −1 and when the same was calculated from galvanostatic charging–discharging characteristics the values came even higher. The energy and power density of both the samples was calculated and all these when compared with different reported results, confirmed the performance of Ni doped GCN is comparable and sometimes even far better along with the advantages of the easy, large scale and high yield synthesis approach.