Activated carbon induced oxygen vacancies-engineered nickel ferrite with enhanced conductivity for supercapacitor application

Abstract

NiFe₂O₄ is a kind of bimetallic oxide possessing excellent theoretical capacity and application prospect in the field of supercapacitors. Whereas, due to the inherent poor conductivity of metal oxides, the performance of NiFe₂O₄ is not ideal in practice. Oxygen vacancies can not only enhance the conductivities of NiFe₂O₄ but also provide better adsorption of OH, which is beneficial to the electrochemical performances. Hence, oxygen vacancies engineered NiFe₂O₄ (NiFe₂O_4‒δ) is obtained through a two-step method, including a hydrothermal reaction and a further heat treatment in activated carbon bed. Results of electron paramagnetic resonance spectra indicate that more oxygen vacancies exist in the treated NiFe₂O_4‒δ than the original one. UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra prove that the treated NiFe₂O_4‒δ owns better conductivity than the original NiFe₂O₄. As for the electrochemical performances, the treated NiFe₂O_4‒δ performs a high specific capacitance of 808.02 F∙g^‒1 at 1 A∙g^‒1. Moreover, the asymmetric supercapacitor of NiFe₂O_4‒δ//active carbon displays a high energy density of 17.7 Wh∙kg^‒1 at the power density of 375 W∙kg^‒1. This work gives an effective way to improve the conductivity of metal oxides, which is beneficial to the application of metal oxides in supercapacitors.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

nickel ferrite / oxygen vacancy / high conductivity / supercapacitor

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Major Basic Research Projects of Shandong Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. ZR2018ZB0104), Science and Technology Development Project of Shandong Province (Grant Nos. 2016GGX102003 and 2017GGX20105), and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2017BEM032).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-023-2352-6 and is accessible for authorized users.

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