Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of ruthenium-decorated titanium boride nanocomposite structures for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract

TiB2 is extensively explored due to its outstanding properties, for example, high electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity, chemical stability, high hardness, low density, and solidity. Herein, we developed a novel nanocomposite structure (NCS) featuring exfoliated TiB2 decorated with Ru nanoparticles, denoted as exfoliated TiB2@Ru. This novel electrode material was synthesized using an ultrasound-assisted method. Both the pristine TiB2 and exfoliated TiB2@Ru NCS were characterized by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, AFM, and XPS analyses. Furthermore, the electrochemical characteristics of all TiB2 electrodes were measured by CV, GCD, and EIS to evaluate their application to supercapacitors. The exfoliated TiB2@Ru NCS exhibited an enhanced specific capacitance of 744 F/g compared with exfoliated TiB2 (464 F/g) and pristine TiB2 (296 F/g) at a current density of 1 A/g in 3 M KOH electrolyte solution using a three-electrode system. The as-prepared exfoliated TiB2@Ru solid-state supercapacitor delivered a significantly higher capacity retention of 97 % than the pristine TiB2 (92 %), even after 5000 cycles. Therefore, the interconnected sheet-like exfoliated TiB2@Ru NCS electrode offers excellent capacitive performance for energy storage applications. As a result, the design and/or suitability for improving highly active electrochemical sites in exfoliated TiB2 through the incorporation of Ru nanoparticles by ultrasonic method showed excellent charge storage performance.