Battery-Type-Behavior-Retention Ni(OH)2-rGO Composite for an Ultrahigh-Specific-Capacity Asymmetric Electrochemical Capacitor Electrode.

Abstract

Nanosized battery-type materials applied in electrochemical capacitors can effectively reduce a series of problems caused by low conductivity and large volume changes. However, this approach will lead to the charging and discharging process being dominated by capacitive behavior, resulting in a serious decline in the specific capacity of the material. By controlling the material particles to an appropriate size and a suitable number of nanosheet layers, the battery-type behavior can be retained to maintain a large capacity. Here, Ni(OH)2, which is a typical battery-type material, is grown on the surface of reduced graphene oxide to prepare a composite electrode. By controlling the dosage of the nickel source, the composite material with an appropriate Ni(OH)2 nanosheet size and a suitable number of layers was prepared. The high-capacity electrode material was obtained by retaining the battery-type behavior. The prepared electrode had a specific capacity of 397.22 mA h g-1 at 2 A g-1. After the current density was increased to 20 A g-1, the retention rate was as high as 84%. The prepared asymmetric electrochemical capacitor had an energy density of 30.91 W h kg-1 at a power density of 1319.86 W kg-1 and the retention rate could reach 79% after 20,000 cycles. We advocate an optimization strategy that retains the battery-type behavior of electrode materials by increasing the size of nanosheets and the number of layers, which can significantly improve the energy density while combining the advantage of the high rate capability of the electrochemical capacitor.