Electrodeposited NiSe on a forest of carbon nanotubes as a free-standing electrode for hybrid supercapacitors and overall water splitting

Ting-Yu Chen; Balaraman Vedhanarayanan; Shih-Yu Lin; Li-Dong Shao; Zdenek Sofer; Jeng-Yu Lin; Tsung-Wu Lin

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.04.034

Electrodeposited NiSe on a forest of carbon nanotubes as a free-standing electrode for hybrid supercapacitors and overall water splitting

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Aug 15:574:300-311. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.04.034. Epub 2020 Apr 18.

Authors

Ting-Yu Chen¹, Balaraman Vedhanarayanan¹, Shih-Yu Lin², Li-Dong Shao³, Zdenek Sofer⁴, Jeng-Yu Lin⁵, Tsung-Wu Lin⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Tunghai University, No.1727, Sec.4, Taiwan Boulevard, Xitun District, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Tatung University, No. 40, Sec. 3, Chungshan North Rd., Taipei City 104, Taiwan.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Materials Protection and Advanced Materials in Electric Power, Shanghai University of Electric Power, 2013 Ping Liang Road, Shanghai 200090, PR China.
⁴ Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technicka 5, 166 28, Prague 6, Czech Republic. Electronic address: Zdenek.Sofer@vscht.cz.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Tatung University, No. 40, Sec. 3, Chungshan North Rd., Taipei City 104, Taiwan. Electronic address: jylin@ttu.edu.tw.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Tunghai University, No.1727, Sec.4, Taiwan Boulevard, Xitun District, Taichung 40704, Taiwan. Electronic address: twlin@thu.edu.tw.

PMID: 32335481
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.04.034

Abstract

NiSe nanoparticles are electrodeposited over a forest of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form an intertwined and porous network. The assynthesized composite (denoted as CNT@NiSe/SS) is used as a free-standing and multifunctional electrode for bothsupercapacitorsand overallwater splitting applications. For a supercapacitor application, CNT@NiSe/SS exhibits higher specific capacity and improved rate capability compared with individual NiSe and CNTs. A hybrid supercapacitor device consisting of battery-like CNT@NiSe/SS and EDLC-like graphene delivers a maximum energy density of 32.1 Wh kg^-1 at a power density of 823 W kg^-1 and has excellent stability after a floating test of 50 h. On the other hand, CNT@NiSe/SS also serves as a bifunctional electrocatalyst with high activity for overall water splitting. The CNT@NiSe/SS electrode displays excellent hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction performance with the lowest overpotential of 174 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and 267 mV at 50 mA cm^-2, respectively. The symmetrical two-electrode system requires an operating potential of 1.71 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^-2. Furthermore, this electrolyzer shows a negligible increment in potential after 24 hof continuouswater splitting. The outstanding performances of CNT@NiSe/SS can be attributed to the synergistic effect of NiSe and CNTs.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes; Free-standing electrode; Hybrid supercapacitors; Nickel selenide; Overall water splitting.