Insitu grown metal selenides (MX; M=Ni, Co; X=Se) on carbon fibre cloth as novel electrodes for thermally chargeable supercapacitors

TRANSLATE PhD student Rupa Ranjani Palanisamy presented this work for the Tyndall Poster Presentation Competition/Event on 1st August 2023 at Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork.

ABSTRACT:

Thermally chargeable supercapacitors (TCSs) are a new kind of energy storage device that can convert thermal energy into electricity and store it for further utilisation.  TCSs consist of two major components namely electrodes and electrolyte.  The selection of appropriate electrode materials with rational nanostructured design results in the improved thermoelectrochemical performance of TCSs.  This presentation describes a facile one pot hydrothermal method to synthesise nickel selenide on carbon cloth (NiSe-CC) electrodes for use in TCSs.  The NiSe-CC electrodes produced and electrochemically tested in 1 M NaOH show battery-type charge storage characteristics; with a specific capacity of 33 mAh g^-1 (506 F g^-1), at a current density of 1 mA cm^-2 and with 70 % capacitive retention after 250 stable cycles.  A charge transfer resistance of 2 Ω reveals a high electrical conductivity of the NiSe-CC electrode.  Ongoing experiments are exploring how the structure, morphology and composition of the NiSe-CC electrodes can be optimised in a TCS configuration to best convert heat into electrical energy.  These configurations include the application of nanochannel membranes between the NiSe-CC electrodes, which potentially promotes ion movement between electrodes and enhances their charge storage capacity.

KEYWORDS: Heat energy; Supercapacitors; Electrodes; Thermo-Electrochemical Cell.

Reference

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