Multishelled Nickel-Cobalt Oxide Hollow Microspheres with Optimized Compositions and Shell Porosity for High-Performance Pseudocapacitors.

Abstract

Nickel-cobalt oxides/hydroxides have been considered as promising electrode materials for a high-performance supercapacitor. However, their energy density and cycle stability are still very poor at high current density. Moreover, there are few reports on the fabrication of mixed transition-metal oxides with multishelled hollow structures. Here, we demonstrate a new and flexible strategy for the preparation of hollow Ni-Co-O microspheres with optimized Ni/Co ratios, controlled shell porosity, shell numbers, and shell thickness. Owing to its high effective electrode area and electron transfer number (n(3/2) A), mesoporous shells, and fast electron/ion transfer, the triple-shelled Ni-Co1.5-O electrode exhibits an ultrahigh capacitance (1884 F/g at 3A/g) and rate capability (77.7%, 3-30A/g). Moreover, the assembled sandwiched Ni-Co1.5-O//RGO@Fe3O4 asymmetric supercapacitor (ACS) retains 79.4% of its initial capacitance after 10 000 cycles and shows a high energy density of 41.5 W h kg(-1) at 505 W kg(-1). Importantly, the ACS device delivers a high energy density of 22.8 W h kg(-1) even at 7600 W kg(-1), which is superior to most of the reported asymmetric capacitors. This study has provided a facile and general approach to fabricate Ni/Co mixed transition-metal oxides for energy storage.