Multilayered and hierarchical structured NiCo double hydroxide nanosheets generated on porous MgCo2O4 nanowire arrays for high performance supercapacitors.

A hierarchical structure electrode material composed of MgCo 2 O 4 nanowire loaded NiCo-LDH nanosheets shows excellent capacitance and stability and superb energy density. Impressively, two MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH/NF-2//AC asymmetric supercapacitor devices connected in series can light up the LED indicators for up to 15 min, showing a broad practical application prospect. • MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo layered double hydroxide (LDH) hierarchical structure nanocomposites is fabricated on 3D Ni foams. • The materials are obtained by a facile hydrothermal strategy. • MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH electrode exhibits superb supercapacitive performance. In this work, MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo layered double hydroxide (LDH) hierarchical structure nanocomposites on Ni foam (NF) are synthesized by facile hydrothermal and calcination methods. MgCo 2 O 4 /NF is synthesized first via a hydrothermal reaction and annealing treatment and then utilized to prepare MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH/NF hierarchical structure nanocomposites via the second hydrothermal process. It is found that the MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH/NF nanocomposite prepared from 9 h hydrothermal reaction (MC@NC-LDH-2) exhibits an excellent specific capacitance of 5701.2 F g−1 at the current density of 1 A g−1. Moreover, a high capacitance retention (83.7% maintained after 5000 cycles) and a low internal resistance (Rs) (0.783 Ω) can be achieved. Furthermore, a quasi-solid state asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) is assembled using MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH/NF-2 as positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as negative electrode. The as-fabricated MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH/NF-2//AC ASC shows a high energy density of 89.79 Wh kg−1 at 800 W kg−1. Meanwhile, the MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH/NF-2//AC ASC device possesses an excellent cycling stability of 89.03% retention of the initial capacitance after 5000 cycles and two ASC devices connected in series can light up a LED bulb for 15 min. Our results manifest that these hierarchical MgCo 2 O 4 @NiCo-LDH composites could envision huge potential application in energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]