Electrochemical performance of carbon paper supercapacitor using sodium molybdate gel polymer electrolyte and nickel molybdate electrode

Solid-State Double-Network Hydrogel Redox Electrolytes for High-Performance Flexible Supercapacitors

Flexible supercapacitors have great potential applications in wearable and portable electronics, but their practical applications were limited due to the low energy density and mechanical flexibility of solid-state electrolytes used for the construction of flexible supercapacitors. In this study, we first report the solid-state double-network (DN) hydrogel electrolytes (HEs) incorporated with Na₂MoO₄ redox additives. It is found that the solid-state DN HEs with Na₂MoO₄ redox additives exhibit high electrochemical performance, excellent mechanical properties, and fast self-recovery features. We then demonstrate novel symmetric supercapacitors (SSCs) incorporated with the solid-state Na₂MoO₄ DN HEs and the active carbon cloths as the electrodes. The SSCs exhibit a specific capacitance of 84 mF/cm² at a current density of 1 mA/cm² and an energy density of 70 μWh/cm² at a power density of 3800 μWh/cm². Moreover, the SSCs retain approximately 80% capacitance retention after 7000 charge/discharge cycles, which indicates that the SSCs possess excellent flexibility and stability. All of these results demonstrate that the SSCs incorporated with the solid-state Na₂MoO₄ DN HEs as energy-storage devices have great practical applications in wearable and portable electronics.

Synthesis and electrochemical performance of an electroactive nitrogen-doping SnO2 nanoarray supported on carbon fiber

An electroactive nitrogen-doping tin dioxide nanorod array (N-SnO2 NRA) is designed as an effective energy-storage electrode material for supercapacitor applications. N-SnO2 supported on a carbon fiber substrate is prepared using SnCl4 as a precursor through hydrolysis, hydrothermal growth, and an NH3-nitriding process. Electroactive N-SnO2 is formed by an N-doping reaction between Sn(OH)4 and NH3, revealing a high nitrogen-doping level of 12.5% in N-SnO2. N-SnO2/carbon fiber reveals a lower ohmic resistance and charge transfer resistance than SnO2/carbon fiber, which is consistent with its higher current response and lower voltage drop in electrochemical measurements. N-SnO2 NRA has an independent nanoarray structure and a small side length of a quadrangular nanorod, contributing to a more accessible interspace, reactive sites, and feasible electrolyte ion diffusion. The N-SnO2/carbon fiber NRA electrode shows higher specific capacitance (105.4 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1) and rate capacitance retention (45.0% from 0.5 to 5 A g−1) than a SnO2/carbon fiber NRA electrode (58.6 F g−1, 38.4%). Significantly, the cycling capacitance retention after 2000 cycles increases from 78.1% of SnO2/carbon fiber to 98.8% of N-SnO2/carbon fiber, presenting a superior electrochemical cycling stability. The N-SnO2 supercapacitor maintains stable power working at an output voltage of 1.6 V. The specific capacitance decreases from 75.2 to 55.1 F g−1 when the current density increases from 1 to 10 A g−1. The corresponding energy density decreases from 24.23 to 9.81 Wh kg−1, presenting a reasonable rate capability. So, the prepared N-SnO2 nanorod array demonstrates superior capacitance performance for energy-storage applications.

Electrochemical performance of the homologous molybdenum(vi) redox-active gel polymer electrolyte system

PVA–H₃PO₄–Na₂MoO₄ and PVA–H₃PO₄–PMo₁₂ are assembled into a single solid-state supercapacitor to improve the specific capacitance. Homologous molybdenum (vi) of PMo₁₂ and Na₂MoO₄ provides synergistic effect to improve faradaic capacitance performance.

Fabrication and charge storage capacitance of PPY/TiO2/PPY jacket nanotube array

A PPY/TiO2/PPY jacket nanotube array was fabricated by coating PPY layer on the external and internal surface of a tube wall-separated TiO2 nanotube array. It shows coaxial triple-walled nanotube structure with two PPY nanotube layers sandwiching one TiO2 nanotube layer. PPY/TiO2/PPY reveals much higher current response than TiO2. The theoretical calculation indicates PPY/TiO2/PPY reveals higher density of states and lower band gap, accordingly presenting higher conductivity and electroactivity, which is consistent with the experimental result of a higher current response. The electroactivity is highly enhanced in H2SO4 rather than Na2SO4 electrolyte due to feasible pronation process of PPY in an acidic solution. PPY/TiO2/PPY could conduct the redox reaction in H2SO4 electrolyte which involves the reversible protonation/deprotonation and HSO4 − doping/dedoping process and accordingly contributes to Faradaic pseudocapacitance. The specific capacitance is highly enhanced from 1.7 mF cm−2 of TiO2 to 123.4 mF cm−2 of PPY/TiO2/PPY at 0.1 mA cm−2 in H2SO4 electrolyte. The capacitance also declines from 123.4 to 31.7 mF cm−2 when the current density increases from 0.1 to 1 mA cm−2, presenting the rate capacitance retention of 26.7% due to the semiconductivity of TiO2. A PPY/TiO2/PPY jacket nanotube with high charge storage capacitance is regarded as a promising supercapacitor electrode material.

Electrochemical performance of activated carbon fiber with hydrogen bond-induced high sulfur/nitrogen doping

The sulfur/nitrogen co-doped activated carbon fiber (S/N-ACF) is prepared by the thermal treatment of thiourea-bonded hydroxyl-rich carbon fiber, which can bond the decomposition products of thiourea through hydrogen bond interaction to avoid the significant loss of sulfur and nitrogen sources during the thermal treatment process. The sulfur/nitrogen co-doped carbon fiber (S/N-CF) is prepared by the thermal treatment of thiourea-adsorbed carbon fiber. The doping degree of the carbon fiber is improved by reasonable strategy. S/N-ACF shows a higher amount of S/N doping (4.56 at% N and 3.16 at% S) than S/N-CF (1.25 at% N and 0.61 at% S). S/N-ACF with high S/N doping level involves highly active sites to improve the capacitive performance, and high delocalization electron to improve the conductivity and rate capability when compared with the normal S/N co-doped carbon fiber (S/N-CF). Accordingly, the specific capacitance increases from 1196 mF cm⁻² for S/N-CF to 2704 mF cm⁻² for S/N-ACF at 1 mA cm⁻². The all-solid-state flexible S/N-ACF supercapacitor achieves 184.7 μW h cm⁻² at 350 μW cm⁻². The results suggest that S/N-ACF has potential application as a CF-based supercapacitor electrode material.

Sulfur/nitrogen co-doped activated carbon fiber is prepared by thermal treatment of thiourea-bonded hydroxyl-rich carbon fiber, which achieves high doping level and electrochemical performance.

A high-performance asymmetric supercapacitor electrode based on a three-dimensional ZnMoO4/CoO nanohybrid on nickel foam

A two-step hydrothermal route was employed to fabricate a ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid supported on Ni foam. The ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid shows a three-dimensional criss-crossed structure. The specific surface area is enhanced from 45 m² g^-1 of ZnMoO₄ to 67 m² g^-1 of the ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid. Furthermore, the existence of electroactive CoO is in favor of reducing the charge transport resistance. The ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid electrode possesses a high capacitance of 4.47 F cm^-2 at 2 mA cm^-2, which is much higher than those of ZnMoO₄ (1.07 F cm^-2) and CoO (2.47 F cm^-2). The ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid electrode also exhibits an ultrahigh cycling stability with 100.5% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 20 mA cm^-2. In addition, an asymmetric all-solid-state supercapacitor was assembled using the ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid as the positive electrode and exfoliated graphite carbon paper as the negative electrode. The asymmetric supercapacitor exhibits a superior energy density of 58.6 W h kg^-1 at a power density of 800 W kg^-1 and a considerable cycling stability with 81.8% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 5 A g^-1. The ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid demonstrates its tremendous advantages and possibilities as a positive electrode material in energy storage applications. Moreover, for a better understanding of the electrochemical behavior, a combined study of experimental measurements and density functional theory calculations is also applied to illustrate the high-performance of the ZnMoO₄/CoO nanohybrid.

Activation of carbon fiber for enhancing electrochemical performance

Carbon fiber sequentially undergoes thermal activation, electrochemical oxidation activation, electrochemical reduction activation and a secondary thermal activation process to form a highly activated carbon fiber electrode material.