Rational construction of well-defined hollow double shell SnO2/mesoporous carbon spheres heterostructure for supercapacitors

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds 2021-08, Vol.873, p.159810, Article 159810
• Main Authors: Yang, Guangzhi, Zhang, Zhenkun, Zhang, Zhenwang, Zhang, Li, Xue, Yuhua, Yang, Junhe, Peng, Chengxin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capacitance; Carbon; Carbonaceous materials; Electrical resistivity; Electrochemical analysis; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Energy storage; H-SnO2; Heterostructure; Heterostructures; Hollow carbon sphere; In-situ polymerization; Materials selection; Metal oxides; Particulate composites; Pore size; Silicon dioxide; Supercapacitors; Tin dioxide; Tin oxides
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.159810

•Hollow double-shell H-SnO2/MesCHS heterostructure composites are fabricated.•H-SnO2/MesCHS exist abundant mesoporous structure and accelerate the electrolyte ions transport.•The reaction kinetics of H-SnO2/MesCHS is mainly dominated by the diffusion control process. The selection of proper electrode materials and the design of rational structure are two efficient approaches to improve the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. Carbonaceous materials have become an important choice of electrode materials due to their good electrical conductivity and accommodation for volume expansion of metal oxides. In this contribution, hollow double-shell structured H-SnO2/MesCHS (mesoporous carbon hollow spheres) heterostructure is successfully achieved by silica template and in-situ polymerization methods. The H-SnO2/MesCHS composites demonstrate a specific surface area of 747.7 m2 g-1 and an average pore size of ca. 4.9 nm in the mesoporous carbon shell, where the outer layer of mesoporous hollow carbon layer act as a buffer to confine the volume expansion of the inner hollow tin oxide sphere. As consequence, hollow double-shell H-SnO2/MesCHS heterostructure demonstrates an excellent electrochemical performance with a high specific capacitance of 470 F g-1, exceptional cycling stability (88.4% retention of capacitance over 4000 cycles) and outstanding coulombic efficiency of 86.5% at high current density of 20 A g−1. The work provides an alternative route for the preparation of spherical hollow heterostructures materials with tunable double shell architectures, which may potentially be used as electrode materials for high-performance of energy storage.