A cleaner lignin-induced 3D porous MXenes hybrid electrode with enlarged voltage and high capacitance retention

Abstract

Conventional supercapacitors face narrow voltage and an inevitable reduction in capacitance retention during operation, significantly preventing its further commercial application. So, biomass-derived composite materials have attracted intensive attention, especially for pseudocapacitive supercapacitors. Herein, a high-end utilization strategy of lignin to induce a 3D porous layered MXenes/graphene oxide hybrid electrode (LGM2-80) and homologous gel electrolytes with low interface resistance for lignin-derived supercapacitors is demonstrated by a simple hydrothermal method. A more uniform distribution and smaller nanospheres ≈<10 nm of lignin prevent the restacking and increase the interlayer spacing of graphene oxide, also play an adhesive role between graphene oxide and MXene, guaranteeing the maximization of the pseudocapacitance effect between lignin and MXene. Consequently, the LGM2-80 electrode showed a wide operating potential (−0.7∼1.0 V), breaking through the bottleneck of MXene-derived devices with limited working voltage (typically≤0.6 V). Furthermore, the lignin-derived symmetric quasi-solid-state supercapacitor (LGM2-80//lignin gel//LGM2-80) possesses an excellent capacitance retention rate of 149 % at 5,000 cycles, which is far exceeding the current reported supercapacitors. This innovative use of lignin opens up new perspectives for ultra-voltage and ultra-high capacitance retention of advanced supercapacitors.