Cobalt-Nickel Phosphate Composites for the All-Phosphate Asymmetric Supercapacitor and Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Abstract

Recently, design of cost-effective multifunctional electromaterials for supercapacitors and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and enhancing their functionalities have become an emphasis in energy storage and conversion. Herein, a series of cheap and functional phosphate composites with different ratios of cobalt and nickel are synthesized using a simple polyalcohol refluxing method, and their excellent capacity and OER properties are systematically studied. Notably, owing to the different major role of Co and Ni elements in the phosphate composites for capacity and OER, the optimal electroconductibility, structural adjustment, electrochemical active sites, and activities for capacity and OER are obtained from the composites with the different ratios of Co/Ni. In addition, using high-capacity BiPO4 (BPO) as the negative electrodes, the new type of all-phosphate asymmetric supercapacitor (CNPO-40//BPO) shows a high energy density and reaches 36.84 W h kg-1 at a power density of 254.52 W kg-1. Its cyclic stability is also more excellent than that of the CNPO-40//AC device using commercial activated carbon as the negative electrodes. This study is beneficial to the more in-depth research on efficient dual-function electromaterials in capacity and OER and provides a high-efficient way to improve the practicality of asymmetric supercapacitors using the high-capacity Bi-based electromaterials as the negative electrodes.