Boosting Pseudocapacitive Behavior of Supercapattery Electrodes by Incorporating a Schottky Junction for Ultrahigh Energy Density

Abstract Pseudo-capacitive negative electrodes remain a major bottleneck in the development of supercapacitor devices with high energy density because the electric double-layer capacitance of the negative electrodes does not match the pseudocapacitance of the corresponding positive electrodes. In the present study, a strategically improved Ni-Co-Mo sulfide is demonstrated to be a promising candidate for high energy density supercapattery devices due to its sustained pseudocapacitive charge storage mechanism. The pseudocapacitive behavior is enhanced when operating under a high current through the addition of a classical Schottky junction next to the electrode–electrolyte interface using atomic layer deposition. The Schottky junction accelerates and decelerates the diffusion of OH ‒ /K + ions during the charging and discharging processes, respectively, to improve the pseudocapacitive behavior. The resulting pseudocapacitive negative electrodes exhibits a specific capacity of 2,114 C g −1 at 2 A g −1 matches almost that of the positive electrode’s 2,795 C g −1 at 3 A g −1 . As a result, with the equivalent contribution from the positive and negative electrodes, an energy density of 236.1 Wh kg −1 is achieved at a power density of 921.9 W kg −1 with a total active mass of 15 mg cm −2 . This strategy demonstrates the possibility of producing supercapacitors that adapt well to the supercapattery zone of a Ragone plot and that are equal to batteries in terms of energy density, thus, offering a route for further advances in electrochemical energy storage and conversion processes.