High energy storage quasi-solid-state supercapacitor enabled by metal chalcogenide nanowires and iron-based nitrogen-doped graphene nanostructures

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Feb 15;608(Pt 1):711-719. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.09.136. Epub 2021 Sep 25.

Abstract

Transition metal selenides (TMS) have excellent research prospects and significant attention in supercapacitors (SCs) owing to their high electrical conductivity, superior electrochemical activity and excellent structural stability. However, the commercial utilization of TMS remains challenge due to their elaborate synthesis. Present study designed a hierarchical cobalt selenide (CoSe2) nanowire array on Ni-foam to serve as a positive electrode for asymmetric SCs (ASCs). The nanowires-like morphology of CoSe2 was highly advantageous for SCs, as it offered enhanced electrical conductivity, plenty of surface sites, and short ion diffusion. The as-obtained, CoSe2 nanowire electrode demonstrated outstanding electrochemical features, with an areal capacity of 1.08 mAh cm-2 at 3 mA cm-2, high-rate performance (69.5 % at 50 mA cm-2), as well as outstanding stability after 10,000 cycles. The iron titanium nitride@nitrogen-doped graphene (Fe-TiN@NG) was prepared as a negative electrode to construct the ASCs cell. The obtained ASCs cell illustrated an energy density of 91.8 W h kg-1 at a power density of 281.4 W kg-1 and capacity retention of 94.6% over 10,000 cycles. The overall results provide a more efficient strategy to develop redox-ambitious active materials with a high capacity for advanced energy-storage systems.

Keywords: Asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs); Cobalt selenide (CoSe(2)); Energy density; Metal chalcogenides; Nanowires.