Rambutan-like hollow carbon spheres decorated with vacancy-rich nickel oxide for energy conversion and storage

Transition metal oxides hold great promise for lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)and electrocatalytic water splitting because of their high abundance and high energy density.However,designing and fabrication of efficient,stable,high power density electrode materials are challenging.Herein,we report rambutan-like hollow carbon spheres formed by carbon nanosheet decorated with nickel oxide(NiO)rich inmetal vacancies(denoted as h-NiO/C)as a bifunctional electrode material for LIBs and electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction(OER).When being used as the anode of LIBs,the h-NiO/C electrode shows a large initial capacity of 885mAh g−1,a robust stability with a high capacity of 817mAh g−1 after 400 cycles,and great rate capability with a high reversible capacity of 523mAh g−1 at 10Ag−1 after 600 cycles.Moreover,working as an OER electrocatalyst,the h-NiO/C electrode shows a small overpotential of 260mV at 10mAcm−2,a Tafel slope of 37.6mVdec−1 along with good stability.Our work offers a cost-effective method for the fabrication of efficient electrode for LIBs and OER.

Photovoltaic-powered supercapacitors for driving overall water splitting:A dual-modulated 3D architecture

Due to the growing demand for clean and renewable hydrogen fuel,there has been a surge of interest in electrocatalytic water-splitting devices driven by renewable energy sources.However,the feasibility of self-driven water splitting is limited by inefficient connections between functional modules,lack of highly active and stable electrocatalysts,and intermittent and unpredictable renewable energy supply.Herein,we construct a dualmodulated three-dimensional(3D)NiCo_(2)O_(4)@NiCo_(2)S_(4)(denoted as NCONCS)heterostructure deposited on nickel foam as a multifunctional electrode for electrocatalytic water splitting driven by photovoltaic-powered supercapacitors.Due to a stable 3D architecture configuration,abundant active sites,efficient charge transfer,and tuned interface properties,the NCONCS delivers a high specific capacity and rate performance for supercapacitors.A twoelectrode electrolyzer assembled with the NCONCS as both the anode and the cathode only requires a low cell voltage of 1.47 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^(−2) in alkaline electrolyte,which outperforms the state-of-the-art bifunctional electrocatalysts.Theoretical calculations suggest that the generated heterointerfaces in NCONCS improve the surface binding capability of reaction intermediates while regulating the local electronic structures,which thus accelerates the reaction kinetics of water electrolysis.As a proof of concept,an integrated configuration comprising a two-electrode electrolyzer driven by two series-connected supercapacitors charged by a solar cell delivers a high product yield with superior durability.