Hybrid alpha-Fe2O3@NiO heterostructures for flexible and high performance supercapacitor electrodes and visible light driven photocatalysts

Hybrid alpha-Fe2O3@NiO heterostructures are successfully anchored on a carbon cloth by a facile hydrothermal approach. alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods are used as the conducting scaffolds to support NiO nanosheets. The as-prepared heterostructures are characterized by series of techniques and directly functionalized as the supercapacitors (SCs) without using any ancillary materials such as carbon black or the binders. The SCs demonstrate high areal capacitance of 557 mF/cm(2) and excellent cyclic performance with nearly 96.2% capacity retention after 3000 cycles at a current density of 1 mA/cm(2). The excellent electrochemical performance can be attributed to a rational combination of two electrochemical active materials. Besides, the hybrid heterostructure can be used as a high performance recyclable photocatalyst under visible light irradiation, which can photodegrade Congo red (CR) with the degradation rate of 98% after 30 min, it demonstrates potential applications in wastewater treatment and energy storage devices. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.