FABRICATION OF A NOVEL FeB-B4C COMPOSITE POWDER AND EVALUATING ITS POTENTIAL FOR ENERGY STORAGE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The development of energy storage devices is critical for humanity to declare its independence from fossil fuels. Supercapacitors and batteries are rapidly growing technologies. Nevertheless, their current progress is still insufficient to meet global demand. Therefore, advances in new generation and tailored materials for energy storage applications are urgently needed. Herein, for the first time, a novel composite of FeB-B4C powder was synthesized by a one-pot sol-gel technique, and its potential as an active material for electrodes in energy storage devices was investigated. The phase analysis showed that a composite powder containing 91±5% B4C and 9±5% FeB was obtained without unwanted excess phases such as graphite, boron, or iron oxide. Scanning electron microscopy images of the composite powder revealed the formation of elongated boron carbide particles connected with spherical iron boride ones. The size of the boron carbide particles was found to be in the range of 1 to 10 µm, while the iron boride particles were formed in the submicron range. The synthesized composite's electrochemical properties were investigated using a three-electrode set-up. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge/discharge tests (GCD) were employed. The results obtained indicate the pseudocapacitive behavior of the electrodes with a specific capacitance of 8.28 F/g.