Heterogeneous Ni-Co phosphide/phosphate with a specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure for high-performance hybrid supercapacitor and alkaline zinc-metal battery applications

Rui Liu; Jingyuan Huang; Yuxin Diao; Wenxuan Zhao; Hai-Chao Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.074

Heterogeneous Ni-Co phosphide/phosphate with a specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure for high-performance hybrid supercapacitor and alkaline zinc-metal battery applications

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jun:639:263-273. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.074. Epub 2023 Feb 15.

Authors

Rui Liu¹, Jingyuan Huang¹, Yuxin Diao¹, Wenxuan Zhao¹, Hai-Chao Chen²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Materials for Energy and Environment, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
² Institute of Materials for Energy and Environment, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China. Electronic address: chenhc@qdu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36805751
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.074

Abstract

Constructing well-defined nanostructures consisting of the multiple components with distinctive features are a promising but challenging strategy to develop advanced electroactive materials for energy storage applications. Herein, heterogeneous Ni-Co phosphide/phosphate with a specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure has been synthesized as advanced electroactive materials for both hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) and alkaline zinc-metal battery (AZB) applications. The heterogeneous Ni-Co phosphide/phosphate combines the merits of improved electrolyte interfacial property from the specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure, high electron-conductivity of phosphide, and better ion adsorption and solid diffusion property of phosphate. As a result, the Ni-Co phosphide/phosphate achieves a high capacity to 180.7 mA h g^-1 at 1 A g^-1, excellent rate capability of 51% capacity retention when the specific current increases by 50 times, and stable cycling stability of 85% capacity retention when cycled for 1000 cycles. Ex situ test was conducted to investigate the formation mechanism for the hollow and sea-urchin-like structure, which can be ascribed to the anion exchange reaction between pre-formed hydroxide and CO₃^2- ions. When used to assemble HSCs with reduced graphene oxide (RGO), the HSCs exhibit a high specific energy of 49.4 W h kg^-1, an ultrahigh specific power to 11.7 kW kg^-1, and an eminent cycling stability over 10,000 cycles. Meanwhile, Ni₂Co-P/PO_x-based AZB also achieves both high-energy and high-power performance with the specific energy of 308.0 W h kg^-1 at 828.4 W kg^-1 and 117.4 W h kg^-1 at 30.8 kW kg^-1. These results above suggest that heterogeneous Ni-Co phosphide/phosphate has great potential to be used as a candidate for both HSC and AZB applications.

Keywords: Electrochemical energy storage; Heterogeneous phosphide/phosphate; Hybrid supercapacitors; Nickel-zinc batteries.