Recent progress in transition metal nitride electrodes for supercapacitor, water splitting, and battery applications

Recently, significant attention has been focused on developing electrode materials with exceptional performance for electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices. Transition metal nitrides (TMNs) are emerging as a promising option for a wide range of these devices due to their superior electrical conductivity compared to transition metal oxides, transition metal dichalcogenides, and transition metal phosphates. Despite limited coverage on the rapid adoption of TMNs as electrode materials, our mini-review provides an up-to-date overview of their utilization as high-performance electrodes in supercapacitors, water splitting, lithium-sulfur batteries, and lithium-ion batteries, along with the corresponding mechanisms. We investigate how the intentional design of nanostructures can enhance the performance of supercapacitors, catalysis based water splitting processes, and batteries. The objective of this review article is to provide a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in fabrication methods, working mechanisms, potential applications, engineering strategies for performance enhancement, as well as the advantages and disadvantages associated with TMNs. Finally, we discuss current challenges and future prospects in the field.