Abstract
Layered double hydroxides as typical supercapacitor electrode materials can perform superior energy storage if the structures are well regulated. In this work, a simple one-step hydrothermal method is used to prepare diverse nickel cobalt layered double hydroxides (NiCo-LDHs), in which the different contents of urea are used to synthesize the different nanostructures of NiCo-LDHs. The results show that the decrease in urea content can effectively improve the dispersibility of NiCo-LDHs, adjust the thickness of materials and optimize the internal pore structures, thereby enhancing the capacitance performance of NiCo-LDHs. When the content of urea is reduced from 0.03 g to 0.0075 g under a fixed precursor materials mass ratio of nickel (0.06 g) to cobalt (0.02 g) of 3:1, the prepared sample NiCo-LDH-1 exhibits the thickness of 1.62 nm, and the clear thin-layer nanosheets structures and a large number of surface pores are formed, which is beneficial to the transmission of ions into the electrode material. After being prepared as a supercapacitor electrode, the NiCo-LDH-1 displays an ultra-high specific capacitance of 3982.5 F g-1 under the current density of 1 A g-1, and high capacitance retention above 93.6% after 1000 cycles of charging and discharging at a high current density of 10 A g-1. The excellent electrochemical performance of NiCo-LDH-1 is proved by assembling two-electrode asymmetric supercapacitor with carbon spheres, displaying the specific capacitance of 95 F g-1 at 1 A g-1 and the capacitance retention with 78% over 1000 cycles. As a result, it offers a facile way to control the nanostructure of NiCo-LDHs, confirms the important affection of urea on enhancing capacitive performance for supercapacitor electrode and provides the high possibility for the development of high-performance supercapacitors.
Ni3+ doped cobalt–nickel layered double hydroxides as high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitors
