Synthesis of NiO/Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanowire Composite with Multi-Layered Network Structure and Its Enhanced Electrochemical Performance for Supercapacitor Application

Multi-layered NiO nanowires linked with a nitrogen-doped carbon backbone grown directly on flexible carbon cloth (NiO/NCBN/CC) was successfully fabricated with a facile synthetic strategy. The NiO/NCBN/CC was further used as a binding-free electrode for flexible energy storage devices, showing a boosted performance including a high capacitance of 1039.4 F g(−1) at 1 A g(−1) and an 83.4% capacitance retention ratio. More importantly, after 1500 cycles, the capacitance retention can achieve 72.5% at a current density of 20 A g(−1). The excellent electrochemical properties of the as-prepared NiO/NCBN/CC are not only attributed to the multi-layered structure that can help to tender unimpeded channels and accommodate the electrolyte ions around the electrode interface during the charge–discharge process, but is also due to the link between the NiO and N-doped carbon backbone and the nitrogen doping on the carbon substrate, which results in extra defects on the surface that could boost the interfacial electron transfer rate of the electrode.