Abstract

Supercapacitors (SCs) have drawn growing attention due to their advantages in fast charge/discharge over batteries. Benefiting from their prominent electrical conductivity and metal-like characteristics, transition metal nitrides have emerged as promising electrode materials for SCs. Traditional ways to prepare metal nitrides through ammonolysis are inconvenient and induce severe environmental pollution. Herein, we report a facile synthetic method toward heterogenous Ni₃N-Co₂N_0.67/nitrogen-doped carbon (Ni₃N-Co₂N_0.67/NC) hollow nanoflower via pyrolyzing NiCo-TEOA (triethanolamine) complex precursor applying urea as nitrogen source. Electrochemical tests demonstrate that the Ni₃N-Co₂N_0.67/NC nanoflower delivers good specific capacitance (1582 F g^-1 at 1 A g^-1) and steady cycle performance (83.79% after 5000 cycles). Moreover, the as-assembled Ni₃N-Co₂N_0.67/NC//AC cell can reach a peak energy density of 32.4 W h kg^-1 at a power density of 851.3 W kg^-1. The excellent electrochemical performance confirms extensive application prospects of the Ni₃N-Co₂N_0.67/NC nanoflower.