Application of transition metal (Ni, Co and Zn) oxides based electrode materials for ion-batteries and supercapacitors

Abstract

With the rapid development of society and the continuous progress of civilization, the demand for energy is greatly increasing, so the researchers are eager to develop new cheap and high-performance energy storage materials to alleviate the current energy problems. Supercapacitors (SCs) and ion batteries, as the mainstream chemical power supply, have unique performance advantages. SCs have the characteristics of rapid charge and discharge and energy storage. Ion batteries have higher capacity and specific capacity, higher output voltage, longer service life, wider environmental applications and environmental protection capabilities. Carbon and graphene are used as main stream electrode materials in commercial batteries, but long-term use is likely to lead to short-circuit inside the batteries. Now carbon and graphite have reached nearly ideal energy density, and it is rather difficult to break through, so the researchers hope to find new electrode materials with high performance and high energy density to replace them. In recent years, transition metals have been valued for their high theoretical specific capacity and excellent safety performance. This leads many researchers to seek ways to fully exploit excellent properties of transition metals. Among them, nickel, cobalt and zinc transition metal oxides are mostly researched. The following is a review of the applications of transition metal oxides such as nickel, cobalt and zinc in ionic batteries and SCs in the past three years. Meantime, the challenges of transition metal oxide research are analyzed and its development prospects are prospected.