One-Step Self-Assembly Synthesis α-Fe2O3 with Carbon-Coated Nanoparticles for Stabilized and Enhanced Supercapacitors Electrode

Mu Pan,Fan Wu,Haolin Tang,Rui Wang,Yizhi Yan

doi:10.3390/en10091296

Abstract

A cocoon-like α-Fe2O3 nanocomposite with a novel carbon-coated structure was synthesized via a simple one-step hydrothermal self-assembly method and employed as supercapacitor electrode material. It was observed from electrochemical measurements that the obtained α-Fe2O3@C electrode showed a good specific capacitance (406.9 Fg−1 at 0.5 Ag−1) and excellent cycling stability, with 90.7% specific capacitance retained after 2000 cycles at high current density of 10 Ag−1. These impressive results, presented here, demonstrated that α-Fe2O3@C could be a promising alternative material for application in high energy density storage.

Highlights

With the development of the economy, environmental pressure has been increasing, and it is very urgent to develop a new, low cost, environmentally friendly alternative energy source and energy storage system [1,2,3,4]
Ni foam is rather small, indicating that the excellent specific capacitance performance is mainly derived from the α-Fe2 O3 @C electrode material
This excellent capacitive performance may be due to the fact that this unique carbon coating structure maintains the rapid transmission of electrolyte ions and electrons across the electrode, which efficiently utilizes pseudo-layers and double-layer capacitance to effectively improve the electrochemical performance of Fe2 O3 electrode material [44,45]

Summary

Introduction

With the development of the economy, environmental pressure has been increasing, and it is very urgent to develop a new, low cost, environmentally friendly alternative energy source and energy storage system [1,2,3,4]. Carbon-based materials, thanks to their high electrical conductivity, excellent chemical stability, and superior mechanical properties, can be composited with Fe2 O3 to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings and improve electrochemical property in supercapacitors [16,17]. The coating carbon can increase the electronic conductivity of the matrix material and function as a structural buffering layer to cushion the mechanical stress caused by the large volume change during the cycling process. The α-Fe2 O3 @C nanoparticles exhibited excellent charge storage properties in terms of high capacitance, superior rate capability, and good cyclic stability. This unique structure is conducive to getting over the above-mentioned shortcomings of Fe2 O3. The cocoon-like α-Fe2 O3 nanoparticles with a novel carbon-coated structure have great potential for practical application in the energy storage field

Experimental Section

Materials Characterization

Discussion

O3 and

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Conclusions