Synthesis and Study on Ni-Co Phosphite/Activated Carbon Fabric Composited Materials with Controllable Nano-Structure for Hybrid Super-Capacitor Applications

Abstract

The advantage of low resistivity and inactive binders makes binder-free electrode an excellent candidate for high-performance energy devices. A simple hydrothermal method was used to fabricate M11(HPO3)8(OH)6 (M: Ni and Co) (MHP) arrays combined with activated carbon fabric (ACF) without binder. The structures of MHP can be easily tuned from bouquets to nano-sheets by the concentration of NaH2PO2. The MHP/ACF composite materials with different structures showed the typical battery-type characteristic of anodic electrodes. In a three-electrode cell configuration, the MHP nano-sheet arrays/ACF composite has a higher capacity, of 1254 F/g, at a scan rate of 10 mA/cm2 and shows better cycling stability: 84.3% remaining specific capacity after 1000 cycles of charge-discharge measurement. The composite is highly flexible, with almost the same electrochemical performance under stretching mode. The MHP/ACF composite@ACF hybrid supercapacitor can deliver the highest energy density, of 34.1 Wh·kg−1, and a power density of 722 W·kg−1 at 1 A·g−1. As indicated by the results, MHP/ACF composite materials are excellent binder-free electrodes, candidates for flexible high-performance hybrid super-capacitor devices.