Prasad Saradh, Durai G, Devaraj D, AlSalhi Mohamad Saleh, Theerthagiri J, Arunachalam Prabhakarn, Gurulakshmi M, Raghavender M, Kuppusami P
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Electronics and Electrical Technology (SEET), Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education (KARE) Krishnankoil, Virudhunagar 626126 Tamil Nadu India
Research Chair on Laser Diagnosis of Cancers, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University 11451 Riyadh Saudi Arabia
RSC Adv. 2018 Feb 27;8(16):8828-8835. doi: 10.1039/c8ra00347e. eCollection 2018 Feb 23.
Transition metal nitride based materials have attracted significant interest owing to their excellent properties and multiple applications in the field of electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices. Herein we synthesize 3D nanorhombus nickel nitride (NiN) thin films by adopting a reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering process. The as-deposited 3D nano rhombus NiN thin films were utilized as cost-effective electrodes in the fabrication of supercapacitors (SCs) and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The structure, phase formation, surface morphology and elemental composition of the as-deposited NiN thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The electrochemical supercapacitive performance of the NiN thin films was examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) techniques, in 3 M KOH supporting electrolyte. The areal capacitance of the NiN thin film electrode obtained from CV analysis was 319.5 mF cm at a lower scan rate of 10 mV s. Meanwhile, the NiN thin film showed an excellent cyclic stability and retained 93.7% efficiency of its initial capacitance after 2000 cycles at 100 mV s. Interestingly, the DSSCs fabricated with a NiN CE showed a notable power energy conversion efficiency of 2.88% and remarkable stability. The prominent performance of the NiN thin film was ascribed mainly due to good conductivity, high electrochemically active sites with excellent 3D nano rhombus structures and high electrocatalytic activity. Overall, these results demonstrate that the NiN electrode is capable of being considered for efficient SCs and DSSCs. This investigation also offers an essential directive for the advancement of energy storage and conversion devices.
基于过渡金属氮化物的材料因其优异的性能以及在电化学能量转换和存储设备领域的多种应用而备受关注。在此，我们采用反应性射频磁控溅射工艺合成了三维纳米菱形氮化镍（NiN）薄膜。所沉积的三维纳米菱形NiN薄膜被用作超级电容器（SCs）和染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSCs）制造中具有成本效益的电极。通过X射线衍射（XRD）、场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）、能量色散X射线光谱（EDS）和原子力显微镜（AFM）对所沉积的NiN薄膜的结构、相形成、表面形貌和元素组成进行了表征。在3 M KOH支持电解质中，通过循环伏安法（CV）和恒电流充放电（GCD）技术研究了NiN薄膜的电化学超级电容性能。在10 mV s的较低扫描速率下，通过CV分析获得的NiN薄膜电极的面积电容为319.5 mF cm。同时，NiN薄膜表现出优异的循环稳定性，在100 mV s下经过2000次循环后保留了其初始电容的93.7%。有趣的是，用NiN对电极制造的DSSCs表现出2.88%的显著功率能量转换效率和出色的稳定性。NiN薄膜的突出性能主要归因于良好的导电性、具有优异三维纳米菱形结构的高电化学活性位点和高电催化活性。总体而言，这些结果表明NiN电极有能力被考虑用于高效的SCs和DSSCs。这项研究也为储能和转换设备的发展提供了重要指导。
