Research Progress on Porous Carbon Supported Metal/Metal Oxide Nanomaterials for Supercapacitor Electrode Applications

Recently, transition metal/metal oxides (TMMOs) decorated on porous carbons (PCs) have been intensively focused on designing rational electrode materials for the promising future specific category of electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies. In particular, TMMO incorporation with PC structures has become very attractive in the area of supercapacitors (SCs) mainly caused by their large accessible surface areas (SSA), together with the suitable pore size distributions (PSD), high electrical conductivity, and rapid redox reactions reversibly on the surface. The transportation of ions, as well as electrons in the bulk of electrodes, is fast as a result of optimal contact between electrodes and electrolytes at the electrode-electrolyte interface, thereby generating high specific capacities (C-sp) of these PCs with TMMOs. We report a survey regarding recent advances in the fabrication and synthesis of TMMOs decorated on PCs with some physical characteristics and their applications for electrochemical capacitors. Some future trends and prospects for further development of the subject nanocomposites in application to next-generation supercapacitors are discussed.