Novel Nanostructured Nd(OH)<sub>3</sub>/g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> Nanocomposites (Nanorolls Anchored on Nanosheets) as Reliable Electrode Material for Supercapacitors
E. Vivek, Arunachalam Arulraj, Syam G. Krishnan, Mohammad Khalid, I. Vetha Potheher
Abstract
Nanoengineering of electrodes facilitates outstanding electrochemical performance in electrochemical energy storage devices (supercapacitors) owing to their tunable texture, high surface/volume ratio and size-reliable properties affording improved charge transportation by effective diffusion of the electrolyte. In this work, a novel nanotextured composite encompassing neodymium hydroxide [Nd(OH)3] nanorolls anchored on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets has been demonstrated by a simple precipitation route for supercapacitors. The special morphology attained for the nanocomposites (nanorolls anchored on nanosheets) intends for an effective diffusion rate of the electrolyte at the interface of the electrode/electrolyte by means of contribution from the large number of active sites resulting from an effective redox reaction. Both the nanocomposite materials and their morphology consistently demonstrated a high specific capacitance of 426.40 F g–1 at a current density of 1 A g–1 in 3 M LiOH when compared to the constituent parts Nd(OH)3 (247.52 F g–1) and g-C3N4 (111.60 F g–1). Typically, a cyclic retention of 88.3% for 3000 continuous galvanostatic charge/discharge cycles and columbic efficiency of 91.2% are achieved. The reason for this reliable electrochemical performance of the electrode material is owing to the synergetic effect between the material and morphologies. Thus, the investigation presents a simple strategy for fabricating a novel and low-cost g-C3N4-based electrode material for supercapacitors from an optimized approach.