Template-assisted synthesis of NiCoO2 nanocages/reduced graphene oxide composites as high-performance electrodes for supercapacitors

Controllable reduction of NiCoO2@NiCo core-shell nanospheres on CNTs for high-performance electrochemical energy storage

The performances of energy storage devices are strongly dependent on the electrode materials. Owing to the high theoretical capacity, NiCoO₂ is a promising transition metal oxide for supercapacitors. Despite many efforts have been devoted, it still lacks of effective methods to overcome its shortcomings such as low conductivity and poor stability, in order to achieve its theoretical capacity. Herein, utilizing the thermal reducibility of trisodium citrate and its hydrolyzate, a series of NiCoO₂@NiCo/CNT ternary composites in which NiCoO₂@NiCo core-shell nanospheres deposited on CNT surface with adjustable metal contents are synthesized. Benefiting from the enhanced synergistic effect of both metallic core and CNTs, the optimized composite exhibits an extremely high specific capacitance (2660 F g^-1 at 1 A g^-1, the effective specific capacitance of the loaded metal oxide is 4199 F g^-1, close to the theoretical value), an excellent rate performance and stability, when the metal content is about 37%. After depolarized calculation, the energy storage mechanism of the composite is reasonably analyzed. By controlling the contents of hexamethylenetetramine, trisodium citrate and CNTs in the reactant, the roles of them are distinguished. This study reveals an efficient novel strategy for transition metal oxides to maximize the electrochemical performances.

Electrochemical Performances Investigation of New Carbon-Coated Nickel Sulfides as Electrode Material for Supercapacitors

A new carbon-coated nickel sulfides electrode material (NST/CNTs@C) has been synthesized through an easy-to-operate process: NiS2/CNTs which was prepared by a hydrothermal method reacted with BTC (1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid) under the condition of water bath heating to obtain the precursor, and then the precursor was calcined in 450 °C under a nitrogen atmosphere to obtain NST/CNTs@C. The electrochemical performance of NST/CNTs@C has been greatly improved because the formation of a carbon-coated layer effectively increased the specific surface area, reduced the charge transport resistance and inhibited the morphological change of nickel sulfides in the charge-discharge process. Compared with pure NiS2 and NiS2/CNTs, NST/CNTs@C presented great specific capacitance (620 F·g-1 at a current density of 1 A·g-1), better cycle stability (49.19% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles) and more superior rate capability (when the current density was raised to 10 A·g-1 the specific capacitance remained 275 F·g-1).