High performance asymmetric supercapacitors: New NiOOH nanosheet/graphene hydrogels and pure graphene hydrogels

NiOOH nanosheet/graphene hydrogels (H-NiOOH/GS), with mesoporous NiOOH nanosheets uniformly dispersed within the highly interconnected 3D graphene network, are constructed and studied for the first time by a mixed solvothermal and hydrothermal reaction. The effect of solvent composition on the morphology, phase, dispersibility of nanocrystal and hydrogel strength is systematically studied. As binder-free electrodes of supercapacitors, H-NiOOH/GS delivers high capacitance of 1162 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) with excellent rate capability (981 F g(-1) at 20 A g(-1)). The charge-storage mechanisms of H-NiOOH/GS are in-depth investigated by quantifying the kinetics of charge storage, which reveals that NiOOH exhibits both capacitive effects and diffusion-controlled battery-type behavior during charge storage. Additionally, solvothermal-induced pure graphene hydrogels (I-1-GS) are also prepared and used as the negative electrode for the first time, which show an impressive specific capacitance of 425 and 368 F g(-1) at 5 and 40 mV s(-1), respectively. Benefitting from the synergistic contribution of both positive and negative electrodes, the assembled H-NiOOH/GS//H-GS asymmetric supercapacitors achieve a remarkable energy density of 66.8 W h kg(-1) at a power density of 800 W kg(-1), and excellent cycling stability with 85.3% capacitance retention after 8000 cycles, holding great promise for energy storage applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.