• Galli, Valerio
• Gabatel, Luca
• Zappia, Marilena Isabella
• Panda, Jaya-Kumar
• Bellani, Sebastiano
• Carzino, Riccardo
• Lauciello, Simone
• Beydaghi, Hossein
• Bonaccorso, Francesco
• Pellegrini, Vittorio
• Pasquale, Lea
• Eredia, Matilde
• Safarpour, Milad
• Brescia, Rosaria
• Bagheri, Ahmad
• Najafi, Maedeh

Abstract

<jats:p>In this work, we report the synthesis of an active material for supercapacitors (SCs), namely α-Fe2O3/carbon composite (C-Fe2O3) made of elongated nanoparticles linearly connected into a worm-like morphology, by means of electrospinning followed by a calcination/carbonization process. The resulting active material powder can be directly processed in the form of slurry to produce SC electrodes with mass loadings higher than 1 mg cm−2 on practical flat current collectors, avoiding the need for bulky porous substrate, as often reported in the literature. In aqueous electrolyte (6 M KOH), the so-produced C-Fe2O3 electrodes display capacity as high as ~140 mAh g−1 at a scan rate of 2 mV s−1, while showing an optimal rate capability (capacity of 32.4 mAh g−1 at a scan rate of 400 mV s−1). Thanks to their poor catalytic activity towards water splitting reactions, the electrode can operate in a wide potential range (−1.6 V–0.3 V vs. Hg/HgO), enabling the realization of performant quasi-symmetric SCs based on electrodes with the same chemical composition (but different active material mass loadings), achieving energy density approaching 10 Wh kg−1 in aqueous electrolytes.</jats:p>

Topics

• nanoparticle
• porous
• density
• Carbon
• energy density
• composite
• chemical composition
• electrospinning