Room Temperature Synthesis of Vertically Aligned Amorphous Ultrathin NiCo-LDH Nanosheets Bifunctional Flexible Supercapacitor Electrodes

Developing a simple scalable method to fabricate electrodes with high capacity and wide voltage range is desired for the real use of electrochemical supercapacitors.Herein,we synthesized amorphous NiCo-LDH nanosheets vertically aligned on activated carbon cloth substrate,which was in situ transformed from Co-metal-organic framework materials nano-columns by a simple ion exchange process at room temperature.Due to the amorphous and vertically aligned ultrathin structure of NiCo-LDH,the NiCo-LDH/activated carbon cloth composites present high areal capacities of 3770 and 1480 mF cm^(-2)as cathode and anode at 2 mA cm^(-2),and 79.5%and 80%capacity have been preserved at 50 mA cm^(-2).In the meantime,they all showed excellent cycling performance with negligible change after>10000 cycles.By fabricating them into an asymmetric supercapacitor,the device achieves high energy densities(5.61 mWh cm^(-2)and 0.352 mW cm^(-3)).This work provides an innovative strategy for simplifying the design of supercapacitors as well as providing a new understanding of improving the rate capabilities/cycling stability of NiCo-LDH materials.

Highly active sites of NiVB nanoparticles dispersed onto graphene nanosheets towards efficient and pH-universal overall water splitting

Production of hydrogen(H2) and oxygen(O2) through electrocatalytic water splitting is one of the sustainable,green and pivotal ways to accomplish the ever-increasing demands for renewable energy sources,but remains a big challenge because of the uphill reaction during overall water splitting.Herein,we develop high-performance non-noble metal electrocatalysts for pH-universal water splitting,based on nickel/vanadium boride(NiVB) nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide(rGO) hybrid(NiVB/rGO)through a facile chemical reduction approach under ambient condition.By virtue of more exposure to surface active sites,superior electron transfer capability and strong electronic coupling,the asprepared NiVB/rGO heterostructure needs pretty low overpotentials of 267 and 151 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm^(-2) for oxygen evolution reaction(OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)respectively,with the corresponding Tafel slope of 44 and 88 mV dec^(-1) in 1.0 M KOH.Moreover,the NiVB/rGO electrocatalysts display a promising performance in a wide-pH conditions that require low overpotential of 310,353 and 489 mV to drive a current density of 10 mA cm^(-2) for OER under 0.5 M KOH,0.05 M H2SO4 and 1.0 M phosphate buffer solution(PBS) respectively,confirming the excellent electrocata lytic performance among state-of-the-art Ni-based electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.Therefore,the interfacial tuning based on incorporation of active heterostructure may pave a new route to develop bifunctional,cost-effective and efficient electrocatalyst systems for water splitting and H2 production.

Mn-based MXene with high lithium-ion storage capacity

3d-transition metal(Fe,Co,Ni,and Mn)-based MXene materials have been predicted to demonstrate exceptional electrochemical performance because of their good electrical conductivity and the presence of metallic atoms with multiple charge states.However,until now,there have been no reports on MXenes based on Fe,Co,Ni,and Mn,due to the lack of 3d-metal-layered precursors.Herein,we successfully synthesized the first 3d-transition metal-based MXenes,Mn_(2)CT_(x) by exfoliating a layered precursor derived from the anti-perovskite bulk Mn3GaC.The as-prepared Mn_(2)CT_(x) MXene nanosheets were employed as anode materials in lithium-ion batteries,which exhibited stable storage capacity of 764.7 mAh·g^(-1) at 0.5 C,placing its storage capacities at an upper-middle level compared with other reported MXene materials as well as other Mn-based anode materials.Overall,this study opens a new avenue for MXene research by synthesizing 3d-transition metal-based MXenes for electrochemical applications.