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Evolution of a simple, efficient and reproducible strategy for the rational design of hierarchically structured metal chalcogenide-based supercapacitors has attracted considerable research interest in recent years. Herein, a facile wet-chemistry approach is employed to design three-dimensional forest-like porous nickel sulfide nanotrees on nickel foam (NiS NTs/Ni foam) for use as a cathode material in hybrid supercapacitors. The growth time plays a crucial role in controlling the surface morphology, and the optimal growth conditions (3 h at 85 °C) led to the growth of forest-like NiS NTs/Ni foam with reliable adherence. The forest-like NiS NTs/Ni foam shows maximum areal and specific capacities of 752.71 μA h cm−2 and 342.1 mA h g−1 at a current density of 4 mA cm−2, with an excellent cycling stability of 89.4%. This result is primarily due to the availability of more surface-active sites in the well-defined hierarchical architecture, which allow the rapid diffusion of electrolyte ions and minimize the electron transport limitation. Utilizing the hierarchical NiS NTs/Ni foam as a cathode and activated carbon-based anode, we further fabricated a hybrid supercapacitor, which demonstrates a wide potential window of 1.6 V with high areal energy and power densities of 0.472 mW h cm−2 and 21.5 mW cm−2, respectively. The fabricated hybrid supercapacitor is successfully utilized to drive various electronic gadgets for real-life applications. The electrochemical performance of a hierarchically structured NiS-based binder-free electrode with our facile approach paves a new pathway for the development of novel metal chalcogenides for high-performance hybrid supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, yolk–shell structured electrode materials have attracted increasing interest in supercapacitors (SCs) due to their high surface area, good electrochemical activity and excellent mechanical stability towards superior energy storage performance. However, the synthesis strategies to prepare such yolk–shell structured materials without using chemical surfactants/solid templates are still inferior. Herein, a facile and cost-effective strategy to design yolk–shell structured trimanganese tetraoxide nanospheres (Mn3O4 NSs) with a distinctive core–void–shell configuration to use as an efficient positive electrode material in asymmetric SCs is demonstrated. Specifically, the yolk–shell structured Mn3O4 NSs were prepared by the inclusion of water droplets to the manganese precursor–isopropyl alcohol system, which facilitates the inside-out Ostwald ripening process to construct a yolk–shell-like configuration with porous properties. In aqueous electrolyte solution, the corresponding material exhibited a high specific capacitance (211.36 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1), a good rate capability (79.4% at 10 A g−1) and an excellent cycling stability (92% after 2000 cycles) compared to its solid counterparts. Meanwhile, a low-cost material based on biomass-derived activated carbon with a honeycomb-like structure is also prepared using waste corrugated boxes, which exhibits a reliable electrochemical performance for use as a negative electrode material. Moreover, the fabricated asymmetric SC using both electrode materials offers a maximum potential window of 2 V with higher energy density (19.47 W h kg−1) and power density (2263.89 W kg−1) values, which can effectively power up commercial light-emitting diodes for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tm3+/Er3+/Eu3+/Er3+, Tm3+/Er3+/Eu3+ single, double and triple activator ion/ions doped nanocrystalline BaGd2O4 (BG) phosphors were prepared by a Pechini type sol-gel process. After annealing at 1300 °C, X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed their orthorhombic structure. Field-emission transmission electron microscope images of the BG sample indicated a nanoneedle-type morphology. Photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements were utilized to establish the emission properties of rare-earth ions doped nanocrystalline BG host lattice. Under near-ultraviolet (NUV) excitations, BG:Tm3+ and BG:Er3+ exhibited their characteristic emissions in the blue and green regions, respectively, while BG:Tm3+/Er3+ and BG:Tm3+/Er3+/Eu3+ showed cyan and white light emissions, respectively, when doped with appropriate amounts of activator ions. In the PL, the cross-relaxation process is dominant rather than the energy transfer process. Due to the different mechanism from PL, the CL spectra showed different emission features of BG: Tm3+/Er3+/Eu3+ phosphor. The CL spectra of BG:Tm3+ and BG:Er3+ established the high purity blue and green emissions, respectively. From the PL and CL investigations, the white-light emission was realized from the single-phase BG:Tm3+/Er3+/Eu3+ phosphor under NUV and low voltage electron beam excitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]