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Single‐Crystalline, Metallic TiC Nanowires for Highly Robust and Wide‐Temperature Electrochemical Energy Storage
Author(s) -
Xia Xinhui,
Zhan Jiye,
Zhong Yu,
Wang Xiuli,
Tu Jiangping,
Fan Hong Jin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201602742
Subject(s) - materials science , nanowire , supercapacitor , electrode , electrolyte , capacitance , electrochemistry , nanotechnology , energy storage , optoelectronics , power (physics) , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
Customized electrode materials with good temperature adaptability and high‐rate capability are critical to the development of wide‐temperature power sources. Herein, high‐quality TiC nanowires are uniformly grown on flexible carbon cloth as free‐standing electric‐double‐layer supercapacitor electrode. The TiC nanowires, 20–40 nm wide and 3–6 µm long, are single‐crystalline and highly conductive that is close to typical metal. Symmetric supercapacitors are constructed with ionic liquid electrolyte and TiC nanowires electrodes as wide‐temperature and long‐cycle stable power source. Ultrastable high‐rate cycling life of TiC nanowire arrays electrodes is demonstrated with capacitance retention of 96.8% at 60 °C (≈440 F g −1 ), 99% at 25 °C (≈400 F g −1 ), and 98% at −25 °C (≈240 F g −1 ) after 50 000 cycles at 10 A g −1 . Moreover, due to high electrical conductivity, the TiC nanowire arrays show ultrafast energy release with a fast response time constant of ≈0.7 ms. The results demonstrate the viability of metal carbide nanostructures as wide‐temperature, robust electrode materials for high‐rate and ultrastable supercapacitors.