Synthesis of hydrous RuO2 anchored on seaweed-derived porous carbon for high-performance electrochemical capacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors (SCs) have attracted widespread attention due to the fast development of electronics and electrical vehicles. As a potential pseudocapacitive electrode material for SCs, RuO2 is promising for fast energy storage, but its performance is severely restricted by the spontaneous agglomeration and high cost. Here, we prepared seaweed-derived porous carbon (SDC) as a conductive substrate of hydrous RuO2 nanoparticles for electrochemical SCs, and the as-prepared hybrid exhibits high specific capacitance of 807 F g−1 at 2 mV s−1, excellent high-rate (988.1 F g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 and 635.9 F g−1 at 5 A g−1) and cycling performances (93.8% retention after 1000 cycles at 1 A g−1) in 1 M H2SO4. The outstanding performance of the hybrid can be attributed to the interconnected three-dimensional mesoporous structure of the SDC and the uniform dispersion of hydrous RuO2 nanoparticles. This work demonstrates that the hierarchical porous SDC can be used as an excellent conductive substrate to further enhance the electrochemical performance of other easily agglomerated nanoparticles.