Facile preparation of Ni(OH)2-B/S composite with an embroidered spherical nanosheet structure for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

The development of efficient electrode materials doped with transition metal oxides to produce supercapacitors is currently an intensely studied research topic. Therefore, in our study, we developed a simple, easy, fast, and convenient method for producing a Ni(OH)2-B/S composite with an embroidered spherical nanosheet structure and promising potential for application to supercapacitor fabrication. Ni(NO3)2∙6H2O was used as the raw material and Na2B4O7∙10H2O as a boron source to obtain Ni(OH)2-B powder through a hydrothermal reaction followed by sulfurization and stirring. The obtained Ni(OH)2-B/S composite had a high specific capacitance (1550 F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and excellent cycling stability (71.4% capacity after 10,000 cycles). The energy storage device of an automatic sequencing charger fabricated using the composite and activated carbon as the positive and negative electrodes, respectively, exhibited a high specific energy of 60.5 W h kg−1, specific power of 825 W kg−1, and capacity retention of 78.3% (after 5000 cycles at 8 A g−1). The proposed composite fabrication method is expected to contribute to innovative electrode design for high-capacity supercapacitors.