The synthesis of battery-type electrode materials with
hollow nanostructures
for high-performance hybrid supercapacitors (HSCs) remains challenging.
In this study, hollow CuS@Ni-Co layered double hydroxide (CuS-LDH)
composites with distinguished compositions and structures are successfully
synthesized by co-precipitation and the subsequent etching/ion-exchange
reaction. CuS-LDH-10 with uniformly dispersed CuS prepared with the
addition of 10 mg of CuS shows a unique hollow polyhedral structure
constituted by loose nanosphere units, and these nanospheres are composed
of interlaced fine nanosheets. The composite prepared with 30 mg of
CuS addition (CuS-LDH-30) is composed of a hollow cubic morphology
with vertically aligned nanosheets on the CuS shell. The CuS-LDH-10
and CuS-LDH-30 electrodes exhibit high specific capacity (765.1 and
659.6 C g
–1
at 1 A g
–1
, respectively)
and superior cycling performance. Additionally, the fabricated HSC
delivers a prominent energy density of 52.7 Wh kg
–1
at 804.5 W kg
–1
and superior cycling performance
of 87.9% capacity retention after 5000 cycles. Such work offers a
practical and effortless route for synthesizing unique metal sulfide/hydroxide
composite electrode materials with hollow structures for high-performance
HSCs.