In situ construction of NiCo-layered double hydroxide nanobranches with adjustable layer spacing on micro-sized carbon plate for high-performance supercapacitors.

Binary layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are an emerging class of materials for supercapacitors owing to their tunable topological structure and excellent theoretical energy storage capacity. However, aggregation and restacking cause a decrease in the interlayer distance of LDHs, resulting in a considerable drop in real specific capacitance. To address this, large-sized anions are intercalated into the interlayer space. Herein, we constructed 3D top-tangled NiCo-LDH nanobranches in situ on a biomass micro-sized carbon plate (CP). By varying the amount of benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid (BDC), we prepared a BDC-intercalated CP/NiCo-LDH composite material with adjustable interlayer spacing. Remarkably, the CP/NiCo-LDH-BDC(0.03) composite exhibited excellent electrochemical properties (1530 F g/212.5 mAh/g at 1 A/g). It retained 88.36 % capacity after 5000 charge-discharge cycles. The constructed CP/NiCo-LDH-BDC(0.03)//CP asymmetric supercapacitor showed excellent gravimetric capacitance (123 F g/54.7 mAh/g at 1 A/g) and energy density (43.7 Wh kg at 800 W kg). Furthermore, two asymmetric capacitors connected in series powered a small lightbulb for 2 min, even in a bent state. These findings show that the fabricated CP and CP/NiCo-LDH-BDC(0.03) electrode materials can be applied in flexible and wearable energy storage systems.