Novel peapod NiO nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon fibers for high-efficiency supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Nickel oxide is regarded as one of the most promising electrodes in energy storage. In this report, a special peapod NiO/C is successfully designed and fabricated for the first time through a simple hydrothermal method by using green glucose as the carbon source. This unique structure can not only provide a large contact area between the electrolyte and active materials so as to promote fast ion and electron exchange, but also digest possible volume changes during long-time reactions so that it can lead to superior cyclic stability. Importantly, the porous structure can effectively accelerate ion diffusion, further enhancing the electrochemical performances. In this work, our peapod NiO/C exhibits excellent performances in both supercapacitors (SCs) and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).