Supercapacitor electrode based on few-layer h-BNNSs/rGO composite for wide-temperature-range operation with robust stable cycling performance

• Published in: International journal of minerals, metallurgy and materials Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. 220 - 231
• Main Authors: Yang, Tao, Liu, Hui-juan, Bai, Fan, Wang, En-hui, Chen, Jun-hong, Chou, Kuo-Chih, Hou, Xin-mei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing University of Science and Technology Beijing 01.02.2020; Springer Nature B.V; Collaborative Innovation Center of Steel Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China%School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
• Subjects: Acids; Aqueous electrolytes; Boron; Boron nitride; Ceramics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical vapor deposition; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composites; Corrosion and Coatings; Cycles; Electrodes; Electrolytes; Freeze drying; Glass; Graphene; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Microscopy; Morphology; Natural Materials; Polyvinyl alcohol; Robustness; Sodium sulfate; Supercapacitors; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Tribology; X-rays; few-layer; hexagonal boron nitride; wide-temperature-range operation; cycling performance
• ISSN: 1674-4799; 1869-103X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12613-019-1910-x

Currently, developing supercapacitors with robust cycle stability and suitability for wide-temperature-range operations is still a huge challenge. In the present work, few-layer hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BNNSs) with a thickness of 2–4 atomic layers were fabricated via vacuum freeze-drying and nitridation. Then, the h-BNNSs/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite were further prepared using a hydrothermal method. Due to the combination of two two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals-bonded materials, the as-prepared h-BNNSs/rGO electrode exhibited robustness to wide-temperature-range operations from −10 to 50°C. When the electrodes worked in a neutral aqueous electrolyte (1 M Na 2 SO 4 ), they showed a great stable cycling performance with almost 107% reservation of the initial capacitance at 0°C and 111% at 50°C for 5000 charge—discharge cycles.