The drastic need for development
of power and electronic equipment
has long been calling for energy storage materials that possess favorable
energy and power densities simultaneously, yet neither capacitive
nor battery-type materials can meet the aforementioned demand. By
contrast, pseudocapacitive materials store ions through redox reactions
with charge/discharge rates comparable to those of capacitors, holding
the promise of serving as electrode materials in advanced electrochemical
energy storage (EES) devices. Therefore, it is of vital importance
to enhance pseudocapacitive responses of energy storage materials
to obtain excellent energy and power densities at the same time. In
this Review, we first present basic concepts and characteristics about
pseudocapacitive behaviors for better guidance on material design
researches. Second, we discuss several important and effective material
design measures for boosting pseudocapacitive responses of materials
to improve rate capabilities, which mainly include downsizing, heterostructure
engineering, adding atom and vacancy dopants, expanding interlayer
distance, exposing active facets, and designing nanosheets. Finally,
we outline possible developing trends in the rational design of pseudocapacitive
materials and EES devices toward high-performance energy storage.