Cobalt-ions pre-intercalation MnO2 nanosheet arrays on nickel foam achieving boosted electrochemical pseudocapacitance for supercapacitors

Metal oxide have attracted much attention as a pseudocapacitive electrode for high energy density supercapacitors (SCs). However, the battery-like charge storage mechanism based on ions diffusion and valence change for metal oxide would lead to a poor cycling stability and unsatisfied rate performance. Herein, cobalt ions pre-intercalation MnO 2 nanosheet arrays on Ni foam (Co-MnO 2 /NF) was prepared as the cathode for SCs. The capacitive behavior of MnO 2 was enhanced via cobalt introduction. The optimized Co-MnO 2 /NF-2 demonstrated improved pseudocapacitance and stability, with a specific capacitance of 405.6 mF cm −2 at 1 mA cm −2 . It retained 90.5 % of its initial capacitance at 10 mA cm −2 after 5000 cycles, which was superior to that of pristine MnO 2 (222.4 mF cm −2 , 65.0 % after 1000 cycles), Co-MnO 2 /NF-1 (295.2 mF cm −2 , 85.9 % after 1000 cycles), and Co-MnO 2 /NF-3 (349.9 mF cm −2 , 84.9 % after 1000 cycles). The asymmetric aqueous supercapacitor consisted of Co-MnO 2 /NF-2 and N-doped porous carbon fiber (NPCF) electrodes with an operating potential of 2.0 V reaches a high areal energy density of 0.06 mWh cm −2 at a power density of 0.5 mWh cm −2 .