A High Energy Density Asymmetric Supercapacitor from Nano‐architectured Ni(OH)2/Carbon Nanotube Electrodes

Abstract

The demand for advanced energy storage devices such as supercapacitors and lithium‐ion batteries has been increasing to meet the application requirements of hybrid vehicles and renewable energy systems. A major limitation of state‐of‐art supercapacitors lies in their relatively low energy density compared with lithium batteries although they have superior power density and cycle life. Here, we report an additive‐free, nano‐architectured nickel hydroxide/carbon nanotube (Ni(OH)2/CNT) electrode for high energy density supercapacitors prepared by a facile two‐step fabrication method. This Ni(OH)2/CNT electrode consists of a thick layer of conformable Ni(OH)2 nano‐flakes on CNT bundles directly grown on Ni foams (NFs) with a very high areal mass loading of 4.85 mg cm−2 for Ni(OH)2. Our Ni(OH)2/CNT/NF electrode demonstrates the highest specific capacitance of 3300 F g−1 and highest areal capacitance of 16 F cm−2, to the best of our knowledge. An asymmetric supercapacitor using the Ni(OH)2/CNT/NF electrode as the anode assembled with an activated carbon (AC) cathode can achieve a high cell voltage of 1.8 V and an energy density up to 50.6 Wh/kg, over 10 times higher than that of traditional electrochemical double‐layer capacitors (EDLCs).