Rambutan-like cobalt nickel sulfide (CoNi2S4) hierarchitecture for high-performance symmetric aqueous supercapacitors

Evaluation of the effect of precursor ratios on the electrochemical performances of binder-free NiMn-phosphate electrodes for supercapattery

Binary metal phosphate electrodes have been widely studied for energy storage applications due to the synergistic effects of two different transition elements that able to provide better conductivity and stability. Herein, the battery-type binder-free nickel-manganese phosphate (NiMn-phosphate) electrodes were fabricated with different Ni:Mn precursor ratios via microwave-assisted hydrothermal technique for 5 min at 90 °C. Overall, NiMn3P electrode (Ni:Mn = 1:3) showed an outstanding electrochemical performance, displaying the highest specific (areal) capacity at 3 A/g of 1262.4 C/g (0.44 C/cm2), and the smallest charge transfer resistance of 108.8 Ω. The enhanced performance of NiMn3P electrode can be ascribed to the fully grown amorphous nature and small-sized flake and flower structures of NiMn3P electrode material on the nickel foam (NF) surface. This configuration offered a higher number of active sites and a larger exposed area, facilitating efficient electrochemical reactions with the electrolyte. Consequently, the NiMn3P//AC electrode combination was chosen to further investigate its performance in supercapattery. The NiMn3P//AC supercapattery exhibited remarkable energy density of 105.4 Wh/kg and excellent cyclic stability with 84.7% retention after 3000 cycles. These findings underscored the superior electrochemical performance of the battery-type binder-free NiMn3P electrode, and highlight its potential for enhancing the overall performance of supercapattery.

A Facilely Synthesized NiCo2S4 with Two Mutually Reinforcing Active Sites for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

The shuttle effect and slow conversion kinetics of soluble polysulfides hinder the commercial application of lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). In this context, we propose a three-dimensional lamellar-stacked nanostructure of nickel cobalt sulfide (D-NiCo2S4) enriched with lattice defects by manipulating the cations in spinel sulfides. It has an obvious synergistic promotion mechanism for the adsorption and catalysis of lithium sulfides. Specifically, Ni3+ on tetrahedral (Td) sites with strong Ni-S covalency anchors LiPSs, whereas Co3+ on octahedral (Oh) sites promotes a highly efficient catalytic conversion of LiPSs, which is confirmed by experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Besides, the crystal defects and distortions in the lamellar region could expose more active sites and enhance the redox reaction kinetics of polysulfides. Hence, Li-S batteries with D-NiCo2S4@S as the cathode show outstanding cycle stability; upon cycling at 1 A/g, the battery achieves a high initial specific capacity of 1001.12 and 655.31 mAh g-1 after 1000 cycles (decay rate as low as 0.05% per cycle), as well as a high initial areal capacity of 3.15 mAh cm-2 under high S loading (4.2 mg cm-2). This work provides a viable scheme for designing efficient bimetal sulfide catalysts and furnishes a rational strategy for constructing LSB cathodes with high specific capacity and high area capacity.

Rationally Designed Bimetallic Co-Ni Sulfide Microspheres as High-Performance Battery-Type Electrode for Hybrid Supercapacitors

Rational designing of electrode materials is of great interest for improving the performance of battery-type supercapacitors. The bimetallic NiCo₂S₄ (NCS) and CoNi₂S₄ (CNS) electrode materials have received much attention for supercapacitors due to their rich electrochemical characteristics. However, the comparative electrochemical performances of NCS and CNS electrodes were never studied for supercapacitor application. In this work, microsphere-like bimetallic NCS and CNS structures were synthesized via a facile one-step hydrothermal method by controlling the molar ratio of Ni and Co precursors. The physico-chemical results confirmed that microsphere-like structures with cubic spinel-type NCS and CNS materials were successfully fabricated by this method. When tested as the supercapacitor electrode materials, both NCS and CNS electrodes exhibited battery-type behavior in a three-electrode configuration with outstanding electrochemical performances such as specific capacity, rate performance and cycle stability. Impressively, the CNS electrode delivered a high specific capacity of 430.1 C g^-1 at 1 A g^-1, which is higher than 345.9 C g^-1 of the NCS electrode. Furthermore, the NCS and CNS electrodes showed a decent cycling stability with 75.70 and 84.70% capacity retention after 10,000 cycles. Benefiting from the electrochemical advantage of CNS microspheres, we fabricated a hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) device based on CNS microspheres (positive electrode) and activated carbon (AC, negative electrode), which is named as CNS//AC. The assembled CNS//AC HSC device showed a large energy density of 41.98 Wh kg^-1 at a power density of 800.04 W kg^-1 and displayed a remarkable cycling stability with a capacity retention of 91.79% after 15,000 cycles. These excellent electrochemical performances demonstrate that both bimetallic NCS and CNS microspheres may provide potential electrode materials for high performance battery-type supercapacitors.

Facile Hydrothermal Synthesis and Supercapacitor Performance of Mesoporous Necklace-Type ZnCo2O4 Nanowires

In this work, mesoporous ZnCo2O4 electrode material with necklace-type nanowires was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method using water/ethylene glycol mixed solvent and subsequent calcination treatment. The ZnCo2O4 nanowires were assembled by several tiny building blocks of nanoparticles which led to the growth of necklace-type nanowires. The as-synthesized ZnCo2O4 nanowires had porous structures with a high surface area of 25.33 m2 g−1 and with an average mesopore of 23.13 nm. Due to the higher surface area and mesopores, the as-prepared necklace-type ZnCo2O4 nanowires delivered a high specific capacity of 439.6 C g−1 (1099 F g−1) at a current density of 1 A g−1, decent rate performance (47.31% retention at 20 A g−1), and good cyclic stability (84.82 % capacity retention after 5000 cycles). Moreover, a hybrid supercapacitor was fabricated with ZnCo2O4 nanowires as a positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as a negative electrode (ZnCo2O4 nanowires//AC), which delivered an energy density of 41.87 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 800 W kg−1. The high electrochemical performance and excellent stability of the necklace-type ZnCo2O4 nanowires relate to their unique architecture, high surface area, mesoporous nature, and the synergistic effect between Zn and Co metals.

Shape-controlled synthesis of Ni-based metal-organic frameworks with albizia flower-like spheres@nanosheets structure for high performance supercapacitors

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered as very promising positive electrode materials for supercapacitors. To achieve good electrochemical performance, in this work, we report a mixed-ligand approach to prepare modified Ni-MOF by using trimesic acid (BTC) as the modulator to partially replace the terephthalic acid (PTA) ligands. The introduction of BTC can induce the formation of nanosheets with inserted albizia flower-like spheres, where the nanowires on the albizia flower-like spheres can provide rich redox reaction sites and the "spacer" spheres between the layers can hinder the aggregation of the 2D nanosheets to provide fast transport pathways. Moreover, adsorption simulation shows that the adsorption energy of OH^- on the mixed organic ligands is increased after introducing the BTC ligands, which may improve the reversible redox reaction kinetics in the electrode materials. The as-obtained albizia flower-like spheres@nanosheets structured Ni-MOF with the optimized amount of BTC exhibits a high capacitance of 920 F g^-1 at 1 A g^-1, good rate capability of 61% at 20 A g^-1, and an excellent cycling stability in 6 M KOH electrolyte. This work may provide helpful guidance for controlling the structure and surface property of MOFs to improve the electrochemical performance for supercapacitors.

Hydrothermal Synthesis of Cobalt Ruthenium Sulfides as Promising Pseudocapacitor Electrode Materials

In this paper, we report the successful synthesis of cobalt ruthenium sulfides by a facile hydrothermal method. The structural aspects of the as-prepared cobalt ruthenium sulfides were characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. All the prepared materials exhibited nanocrystal morphology. The electrochemical performance of the ternary metal sulfides was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. Noticeably, the optimized ternary metal sulfide electrode exhibited good specific capacitances of 95 F g−1 at 5 mV s−1 and 75 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, excellent rate capability (48 F g−1 at 5 A g−1), and superior cycling stability (81% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles). Moreover, this electrode demonstrated energy densities of 10.5 and 6.7 Wh kg−1 at power densities of 600 and 3001.5 W kg−1, respectively. These attractive properties endow proposed electrodes with significant potential for high-performance energy storage devices.

A direct-write method for preparing a bimetal sulfide/graphene composite as a free-standing electrode for high-performance microsupercapacitors

It is a great challenge to ideally integrate graphene with its unique two-dimensional (2D) and porous structure into the pseudocapacitive materials. In this paper, a simple technique, i.e. direct-laser-writing (DLW), was developed to fabricate microsupercapacitors (MSCs) with excellent electrochemical performance, marked as Ni–Co–S/laser induced graphene (LIG) that exhibit a high areal specific capacitance of 680 mF cm⁻² at the current density of 1 mA cm⁻². A symmetric MSC device was assembled using Ni–Co–S/LIG as a positive electrode and active carbon (AC) as the negative electrode, and exhibited a high areal energy density of 56.9 μW h cm⁻² at the power density of 800 μW cm⁻², and excellent cycling stability maintaining 89.6% of the areal specific capacitance after 8000 cycles. The synergistic effect of bimetallic Ni–Co–S and the LIG with the 2D structure results in the excellent electrochemical performance. This work demonstrates a method to integrate Ni–Co–S pseudocapacitive materials into porous graphene with a direct-laser-writing technique. The produced integrated materials possess high energy density that can be used in MSCs.

This work demonstrates a method to integrate Ni–Co–S pseudocapacitive materials into the porous graphene producing from direct-laser-writing technique.

Multidimensional structure of CoNi2S4 materials: structural regulation promoted electrochemical performance in a supercapacitor

Multidimensional architectures of CoNi₂S₄ electrode materials are rationally designed by engineering the surface structure toward that of high-performance supercapacitors. The fabrication of a special morphology is highly dependent on the synergistic effect between the guidance of Co–Ni precursor arrays and a subsequent sulfidation process. The unparalleled CoNi₂S₄ electrode materials (NS-3) deliver a significantly enhanced specific capacitance (3784.6 F g⁻¹ at 3 A g⁻¹), accompanied by an extraordinary rate capability (2932.3 F g⁻¹ at 20 A g⁻¹) and excellent cycling life. The outstanding supercapacitor performance stated above stems from the advantages of a multidimensional structure generated by crosslinking 2D microsheets/1D nanowires/2D ultrathin nanosheets; this structure supplies additional efficient active sites and a large contact area at the electrode–electrolyte interface, providing faster transport kinetics for electrons and ions. For practical applications, asymmetric devices based on an NS-3 positive electrode and active carbon negative electrode exhibit a high energy density of 38.5 W h kg⁻¹ accompanied by a power density of 374.9 W kg⁻¹ (22 W h kg⁻¹ at 7615.4 W kg⁻¹). The above results indicate that the design of multidimensional Co–Ni–S materials is an effective strategy to achieve a high-performance supercapacitor.

Multidimensional architectures of CoNi₂S₄ electrode materials are rationally designed by engineering the surface structure toward that of high-performance supercapacitors.

Novel approach to synthesize NiCo2S4 composite for high-performance supercapacitor application with different molar ratio of Ni and Co

Here, we developed a new approach to synthesize NiCo2S4 thin films for supercapacitor application using the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method on Ni mesh with different molar ratios of Ni and Co precursors. The five different NiCo2S4 electrodes affect the electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor. The NiCo2S4 thin films demonstrate superior supercapacitance performance with a significantly higher specific capacitance of 1427 F g-1 at a scan rate of 20 mV s-1. These results indicate that ternary NiCo2S4 thin films are more effective electrodes compared to binary metal oxides and metal sulfides.

Formation of CoNi2S4 nanofibers with 3D hierarchical pompom-like structure for high-rate electrochemical capacitors

Pompom-like 3D hierarchical structured CoNi₂S₄ nanofibers are obtained via a two-step anion exchange route, exhibiting good high-rate performance.