The development of high-performance, low-cost carbon cathodes is desperately desired but remains challenging for further widespread application of aqueous Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitors (ZHSCs). Herein, we propose nitrogen-doped carbon materials derived from inexpensive industrial byproducts, pitch, as advanced ZHSCs cathodes. The nitrogen dopants significantly enhance the conductivity of pitch-derived carbon while the electrochemically active pyrrolic nitrogen substantially accelerates the reaction kinetics for energy storage and yields more pseudocapacitance via nitrogen redox mechanism. Consequently, the as-designed cathode shows satisfactory Zn ion storage ability as well as distinct anti self-discharge ability resulting. When assembled as a ZHSC device, the supercapacitor delivers a high capacity of 136.2 mA h g^–1, excellent rate performance (50.8% capacity retention from 0.3 A g^–1 to 15 A g^–1) and satisfactory anti self-discharge ability (only 4.6% capacity loss after 24 h rest). This finding highlights the potential high-value utilization of industry byproducts and provides insight for understanding nitrogen redox chemistry in aqueous energy storage.

中文翻译：

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吡咯主导的氮氧化还原增强了水性锌离子混合超级电容器中沥青衍生碳材料的反应动力学

迫切需要开发高性能、低成本的碳阴极，但对于水性锌离子混合超级电容器 (ZHSC) 的进一步广泛应用仍然具有挑战性。在此，我们提出了源自廉价工业副产品沥青的氮掺杂碳材料作为先进的 ZHSC 阴极。氮掺杂剂显着提高了沥青衍生碳的导电性，而电化学活性吡咯氮显着加速了储能反应动力学，并通过氮氧化还原机制产生了更多的赝电容。因此，所设计的阴极显示出令人满意的锌离子存储能力以及明显的抗自放电能力。当组装为 ZHSC 器件时，超级电容器可提供 136.2 mA hg ^–1的高容量，优异的倍率性能（从 0.3 A g ^–1到 15 A g ^{–1 的}容量保持率为 50.8% ）和令人满意的抗自放电能力（静置 24 小时后容量损失仅为 4.6%）。这一发现突出了工业副产品的潜在高价值利用，并为理解水性储能中的氮氧化还原化学提供了见解。