Design of ZIF-based CNTs wrapped porous carbon with hierarchical pores as electrode materials for supercapacitors

N-doped porous carbon (NPC) was produced through a simple and efficient method using biomass-derived pine sawdust as the carbon source, NH4Cl as nitrogen source and NaHCO3as the activator. Both NPC and porous carbon (PC, prepared without nitrogen-doping) were used as support for Au nanoparticles to catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol. As expected, Au/NPC performs a substantially enhanced catalytic activity for benzyl alcohol oxidation in comparison with that of Au/PC (conversion of benzyl alcohol is 98.9% for Au/NPC and 51.4% for Au/PC under the same condition). The better catalytic performance of Au/NPC should be due to the introduction of N atoms into PC support, which not only adsorbs the benzyl alcohol molecules more easily, but also makes the Au nanoparticles smaller and more dispersed.