A Flexible Supercapacitor Based on Niobium Carbide MXene and Sodium Anthraquinone-2-Sulfonate Composite Electrode

Abstract

MXene-based composites have been widely used in electric energy storage device. As a member of MXene, niobium carbide (Nb2C) is a good electrode candidate for energy storage because of its high specific surface area and electronic conductivity. However, a pure Nb2C MXene electrode exhibits limited supercapacitive performance due to its easy stacking. Herein, sodium anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (AQS) with high redox reactivity was employed as a tailor to enhance the accessibility of ions and electrolyte and enhance the capacitance performance of Nb2C MXene. The resulting Nb2C–AQS composite had three-dimensional porous layered structures. The supercapacitors (SCs) based on the Nb2C–AQS composite exhibited a considerably higher electrochemical capacitance (36.3 mF cm−2) than the pure Nb2C electrode (16.8 mF cm−2) at a scan rate of 20 mV s−1. The SCs also exhibited excellent flexibility as deduced from the almost unchanged capacitance values after being subjected to bending. A capacitance retention of 99.5% after 600 cycles was observed for the resulting SCs, indicating their good cycling stability. This work proposes a surface modification method for Nb2C MXene and facilitates the development of high-performance SCs.