High performance asymmetric supercapacitor having novel 3D networked polypyrrole nanotube/N-doped graphene negative electrode and core-shelled MoO3/PPy supported MoS2 positive electrode

Recent Development on Transition Metal Oxides-Based Core-Shell Structures for Boosted Energy Density Supercapacitors

In recent years, nanomaterials exploration and synthesis have played a crucial role in advancing energy storage research, particularly in supercapacitor development. Researchers have diversified materials, including metal oxides, chalcogenides, and composites, as well as carbon materials, to enhance energy and power density. Balancing energy density with electrochemical stability remains challenging, driving intensified efforts in advancing electrode materials. This review focuses on recent progress in designing and synthesizing core-shell materials tailored for supercapacitors. The core-shell architecture offers advantages such as increased surface area, redox active sites, electrical conductivity, ion diffusion kinetics, specific capacitance, and cyclability. The review explores the impact of core and shell materials, specifically transition metal oxides (TMOs), on supercapacitor electrochemical behavior. Metal oxide choices, such as cobalt oxide as a preferred core and manganese oxide as a shell, are discussed. The review also highlights characterization techniques for assessing structural, morphological, and electrochemical properties of core-shell materials. Overall, it provides a comprehensive overview of ongoing TMOs-based core-shell material research for supercapacitors, showcasing their potential to enhance energy storage for applications ranging from gadgets to electric vehicles. The review outlines existing challenges and future opportunities in evolving TMOs-based core-shell materials for supercapacitor advancements, holding promise for high-efficiency energy storage devices.

Self-Assembly Vertical Graphene-Based MoO3 Nanosheets for High Performance Supercapacitors

Supercapacitors have been extensively studied due to their advantages of fast-charging and discharging, high-power density, long-cycling life, low cost, etc. Exploring novel nanomaterial schemes for high-performance electrode materials is of great significance. Herein, a strategy to combine vertical graphene (VG) with MoO₃ nanosheets to form a composite VG/MoO₃ nanostructure is proposed. VGs as transition layers supply rich active sites for the growth of MoO₃ nanosheets with increasing specific surface areas. The VG transition layer further improves the electric contact and adhesion of the MoO₃ electrode, simultaneously stabilizing its volume and crystal structure during repeated redox reactions. Thus, the prepared VG/MoO₃ nanosheets have been demonstrated to exhibit excellent electrochemical properties, such as high reversible capacitance, better cycling performance, and high-rate capability.

Coordination Polymer Derived Porous Carbon Activated in Situ by the ZnCl2 Dot: Capacitances Greatly Enhanced by Redox-Activity Additives in Electrolytes

Herein, a 1D zinc coordination polymer [Zn(bibp)Cl₂]_∞ (CP-2-ZX) was assembled from the reaction of 4,4'-bis(imidazol-1-yl)-biphenyl (bibp) with ZnCl₂. Through a calcination-thermolysis strategy, sponge-like highly porous carbon AC-Zn-CP was prepared by employing the coralloid sample of CP-2-ZX as the precursor. For comparisons, a series of activated carbon (AC-n) was obtained by the similar heating process on the mixture of bibp with ZnCl₂ at different mass ratios. The results illustrate that the atomically dispersed ZnCl₂ dot in the 1D chain of CP-2-ZX has an in situ activation effect on the generation of AC-Zn-CP, which can greatly promote the porosity and achieve high-efficiency utilization of ZnCl₂. Therefore, the atomically dispersed activating agent provides a new method for environmentally friendly production of porous carbon materials. Significantly, the AC-Zn-CP electrode displays specific capacitance of 215 F g^-1 in 3 M KOH solution, which will be largely promoted to 1419 F g^-1 in the redox active electrolyte of K₃[Fe(CN)₆]/KOH. AC-Zn-CP also shows remarkable cycling stability (the capacity retention is 89.0% after 5000 cycles). Moreover, the fabricated symmetric supercapacitor owns a high energy density of 34.8 Wh kg^-1 at 785.5 W kg^-1. So, the AC-Zn-CP∩K₃[Fe(CN)₆] system has wide application prospects in supercapacitors.

A review of π-conjugated polymer-based nanocomposites for metal-ion batteries and supercapacitors

Owing to their extraordinary properties of π-conjugated polymers (π-CPs), such as light weight, structural versatility, ease of synthesis and environmentally friendly nature, they have attracted considerable attention as electrode material for metal-ion batteries (MIBs) and supercapacitors (SCPs). Recently, researchers have focused on developing nanostructured π-CPs and their composites with metal oxides and carbon-based materials to enhance the energy density and capacitive performance of MIBs and SCPs. Also, the researchers recently demonstrated various novel strategies to combine high electrical conductivity and high redox activity of different π-CPs. To reflect this fact, the present review investigates the current advancements in the synthesis of nanostructured π-CPs and their composites. Further, this review explores the recent development in different methods for the fabrication and design of π-CPs electrodes for MIBs and SCPs. In review, finally, the future prospects and challenges of π-CPs as an electrode materials for strategies for MIBs and SCPs are also presented.

Carbon coating on metal oxide materials for electrochemical energy storage

During the past decades, nano-structured metal oxide electrode materials have received growing attention due to their low development cost and high theoretical specific capacity, accordingly, quite a lot of metal oxide electrode materials are being used in electrochemical energy storage devices. However, the further development was limited by the relatively low electrical conductivity and the volume expansion during electrochemical reactions. Thus, many approaches have been proposed to obtain high-efficiency metal oxide electrode materials, such as designing nanomaterials with ideal morphology and high specific surface area, optimizing with carbon-based materials (such as graphene and glucose) to prepare nanocomposites, combining with conductive substrates to enhance the conductivity of electrodes, etc. Owning to the advantages of low cost and high chemical stability of carbon materials, core-shell structure formed by carbon-coated metal oxides is considered to be a promising solution to solve these problems. Therefore, this review mainly focuses on recent research advances in the field of carbon-coated metal oxides for energy storage, summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of common metal oxides and different types of carbon sources, and proposing methods to optimize the material properties in terms of structure and morphology, carbon layer thickness, coating method, specific surface area and pore size distribution, as well as improving electrical conductivity. In addition, the double or multi-layer coating strategy is also a reflection of the continuous development of carbon coating method. Hopefully, this rereview may provide a new direction for the renewal and development of future energy storage electrode materials.

Petal-like CoMoO4 Clusters Grown on Carbon Cloth as a Binder-Free Electrode for Supercapacitor Application

The development of supercapacitors with a high energy density and power density is of great importance for the promotion of energy storage technology. In this study, we designed and prepared petal-like CoMoO₄ clusters combined with carbon cloth as an excellent self-standing and binder-free electrode for asymmetric supercapacitors. Due to the abundant electrochemical active sites, the promising electron conduction, and ion diffusion rate, the CoMoO₄@carbon cloth (CoMoO₄@CC) electrode exhibits an excellent electrochemical performance. The results show that the CoMoO₄@CC material exhibits a high specific capacitance (664 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g) and an excellent cycle stability (capacitance remains at 84.0% after 1000 cycles). The assembled symmetrical supercapacitor has an energy density of 27 Wh/kg when the power density is 600 W/kg. Even at a higher power density (6022 W/kg), it still maintains a good energy density (18.4 Wh/kg).

Fabrication of a Three-Dimensionally Networked MoO3/PPy/rGO Composite for a High-Performance Symmetric Supercapacitor

A three-dimensionally interconnected molybdenum trioxide (MoO₃)/polypyrrole (PPy)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite was synthesized via an eco-friendly three-step method. The as-obtained electrode shows a high specific capacity of 412.3 F g^-1 at a current density of 0.5 A g^-1 and a good cycling stability (85.1% of the initial specific capacitance after 6000 cycles at 2 A g^-1 is retained), and these excellent electrochemical performances can be attributed to the unique structure, remarkable electrical conductivity, and the synergetic effects between MoO₃, PPy, and rGO. Furthermore, a symmetric supercapacitor based on a MoO₃/PPy/rGO electrode was assembled to investigate the practical application performance of this material. The results demonstrate a high energy density of 19.8 W h kg^-1 at a power density of 301 W kg^-1. These findings shine a light on the rational design of electrode materials with multicomponents for high-performance supercapacitors.

Review on Recent Progress in the Development of Tungsten Oxide Based Electrodes for Electrochemical Energy Storage

Current progress in the advancement of energy-storage devices is the most important factor that will allow the scientific community to develop resources to meet the global energy demands of the 21st century. Nanostructured materials can be used as effective electrodes for energy-storage devices because they offer various promising features, including high surface-to-volume ratios, exceptional charge-transport features, and good physicochemical properties. Until now, the successful research frontrunners have focused on the preparation of positive electrode materials for energy-storage applications; nevertheless, the electrochemical performance of negative electrodes is less frequently reported. This review mainly focuses on the current progress in the development of tungsten oxide-based electrodes for energy-storage applications, primarily supercapacitors (SCs) and batteries. Tungsten is found in various stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric oxides. Among the different tungsten oxide materials, tungsten trioxide (WO₃ ) has been intensively investigated as an electrode material for different applications because of its excellent charge-transport features, unique physicochemical properties, and good resistance to corrosion. Various WO₃ composites, such as WO₃ /carbon, WO₃ /polymers, WO₃ /metal oxides, and tungsten-based binary metal oxides, have been used for application in SCs and batteries. However, pristine WO₃ suffers from a relatively low specific surface area and low energy density. Therefore, it is crucial to thoroughly summarize recent progress in utilizing WO₃ -based materials from various perspectives to enhance their performance. Herein, the potential- and pH-dependent behavior of tungsten in aqueous media is discussed. Recent progress in the advancement of nanostructured WO₃ and tungsten oxide-based composites, along with related charge-storage mechanisms and their electrochemical performances in SCs and batteries, is systematically summarized. Finally, remarks are made on future research challenges and the prospect of using tungsten oxide-based materials to further upgrade energy-storage devices.