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2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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An Integrated Approach Toward Renewable Energy Storage
Using Rechargeable Ag@Ni
0.67
Co
0.33
S-Based Hybrid
Supercapacitors
Goli Nagaraju, S. Chandra Sekhar, Bhimanaboina Ramulu, and Jae Su Yu*
Dr. G. Nagaraju, S. C. Sekhar, B. Ramulu, Prof. J. S. Yu
Department of Electronic Engineering
Institute for Wearable Convergence Electronics
Kyung Hee University
1732 Deogyeong-daero, Gihung-gu
Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 17104, Republic of Korea
E-mail: jsyu@khu.ac.kr
Dr. G. Nagaraju
Department of Chemical Engineering
College of Engineering
Kyung Hee University
1732 Deogyeong-daero, Gihung-gu
Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 17104, Republic of Korea
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201805418.
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201805418
1. Introduction
To fulfill alternative growing demands for portable electronic
market as well as disquiets of rapid depletion of fossil fuels
(such as coal, oil, and gas), research society has shifted its focus
toward the development of sustainable energy harvesting and
Self-powered charging systems in conjunction with renewable energy
conversion and storage devices have attracted promising attention in
recent years. In this work, a prolific approach to design a wind/solar-powered
rechargeable high-energy density pouch-type hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) is
proposed. The pouch-type HSC is fabricated by engineering nature-inspired
nanosliver (nano-Ag) decorated Ni
0.67
Co
0.33
S forest-like nanostructures on Ni
foam (nano-Ag@NCS FNs/Ni foam) as a battery-type electrode and porous
activated carbon as a capacitive-type electrode. Initially, the core–shell-
like NCS FNs/Ni foam is prepared via a single-step wet-chemical method,
followed by a light-induced growth of nano-Ag onto it for enhancing the
conductivity of the composite. Utilizing the synergistic effects of forest-
like nano-Ag@NCS FNs/Ni foam as a composite electrode, the fabricated
device shows a maximum capacitance of 1104.14 mF cm
-2
at a current
density of 5 mA cm
-2
and it stores superior energy and power densities of
0.36 mWh cm
-2
and 27.22 mW cm
-2
, respectively along with good cycling
stability, which are higher than most of previous reports. The high-energy
storage capability of HSCs is further connected to wind fans and solar cells
to harvest renewable energy. The wind/solar charged HSCs can effectively
operate various electronic devices for a long time, enlightening its potency for
the development of sustainable energy systems.
Hybrid Supercapacitors
storage devices.
[1–4]
Particularly, renewable
energy sources (wind and solar), which
can provide energy without greenhouse
gas emission/air pollution, have attracted
widespread attention for our long-term
energy needs.
[5–8]
However, solar/wind-
powered system is not complete without
effective energy storage system, which
leads to the rising search for perpetual
storage devices.
[9–11]
Among various
energy storage devices, supercapacitors
(SCs) have attracted tremendous atten-
tion owing to their desirable features of
high-power density, quick charging ability,
long-term durability, easy fabrication, and
low cost.
[12–14]
Accordingly, they have been
widely used in various electronic devices
including military devices, plug-in electric
vehicles, cold-start assistance, memory
back-up sources, etc.
[15–17]
However, SCs
impact on a major drawback of its low
energy density, compared to lithium ion
batteries that impede the wide applica-
tions further.
[18]
As a next-generation
energy storage device in the SC family,
hybrid SCs (HSCs) have shown promising
progress in exalting the energy density.
The HSCs are composed of two distinct electrodes: battery-
type electrode (e.g., Co
3
O
4
, NiO, ZnCo
2
O
4
, NiCo
2
S
4
, Ni
3
Se
2
,
etc.) and electric-double layer capacitive electrode (EDLCs;
graphene and porous activated carbon), which act as the energy
and power sources, respectively.
[19–23]
The energy density of
HSCs depends mainly on the electrochemical performance of
electrode materials.
[24–26]
Generally, the battery-type materials
showed rich redox reactions which occur at a specific potential.
The redox chemistry can be enlarged based on the structural
and morphological features of battery-type materials, which
obviously results in the increment of capacity, thus leading to
the enhancement in energy density of HSCs.
[27–29]
Meanwhile,
the porous capacitive-type materials provide high-cycling dura-
bility, owing to the electrosorption of ions on the surfaces of
electrodes.
[30]
The fabricated HSC device sandwiched with the
two electrodes can be expected to increase the energy density
without fading its durability and power density.
[31]
Therefore, an
extensive research is essential in developing versatile electrode
materials to improve the performance of HSCs.
[24,32]
Of various battery-type materials, bimetallic chalcogenide-
based nanostructures (such as NiCo
2
S
4
, Zn-Co-S, Ni
3
S
2
-MoS
2
,
CuCo
2
S
4
, NiCoSe, etc.) with unconventional morphologies
Small 2019, 1805418