Achieving Insertion-Like Capacity at Ultrahigh Rate via Tunable Surface Pseudocapacitance

Adv Mater. 2018 Mar;30(12):e1706640. doi: 10.1002/adma.201706640. Epub 2018 Feb 9.

Abstract

The insertion/deinsertion mechanism enables plenty of charge-storage sites in the bulk phase to be accessible to intercalated ions, giving rise to at least one more order of magnitude higher energy density than the adsorption/desorption mechanism. However, the sluggish ion diffusion in the bulk phase leads to several orders of magnitude slower charge-transport kinetics. An ideal energy-storage device should possess high power density and large energy density simultaneously. Herein, surface-modified Fe2 O3 quantum dots anchored on graphene nanosheets are developed and exhibit greatly enhanced pseudocapacitance via fast dual-ion-involved redox reactions with both large specific capacity and fast charge/discharge capability. By using an aqueous Na2 SO3 electrolyte, the oxygen-vacancy-tuned Fe2 O3 surface greatly enhances the absorption of SO32- anions that majorly increase the surface pseudocapacitance. Significantly, the Fe2 O3 -based electrode delivers a high specific capacity of 749 C g-1 at 5 mV s-1 and retains 290 C g-1 at an ultrahigh scan rate of 3.2 V s-1 . With a novel dual-electrolyte design, a 2 V Fe2 O3 /Na2 SO3 //MnO2 /Na2 SO4 asymmetric supercapacitor is constructed, delivering a high energy density of 75 W h kg-1 at a power density of 3125 W kg-1 .

Keywords: chemical adsorption; dual ions; hematite; oxygen vacancies; supercapacitors; ultrahigh rate.