Layered cobalt nickel silicate hollow spheres as a highly-stable supercapacitor material

Among the actively studied electrode materials, layered cobalt or nickel compounds have been recognized as a family of promising electrode materials for supercapacitor. However, the cycling performance of these materials is unsatisfactory by far. In this work, a novel and stable layered cobalt nickel silicate hollow sphere compound was prepared for supercapacitor application using a facile hydrothermal synthetic approach. The obtained material exhibited a good specific capacitance and outstanding long-term cycling stability (only 0.7% and 5% losses of its initial specific capacitance after 10,000 and 20,000 cycles, respectively) at a high current density of 20 A/g after annealing at 600 degrees C. This work provides new insights of designing novel cobalt or nickel compounds for supercapacitor with excellent stability, and promotes the application of layered metal silicates as advanced supercapacitor materials. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.