One-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of a CoTe@rGO Electrode Material for Supercapacitors

Abstract CoTe@reduced graphene oxide (CoTe@rGO) electrode materials for supercapacitors were prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method in this paper. Compared with that of pure CoTe, the electrochemical performance of CoTe@rGO was significantly improved. The results showed that the optimal CoTe@rGO electrode material has a remarkably high specific capacitance of 810.6 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. At 5 A/g, the synthesized material retained 77.2% of its initial capacitance even after 5000 charge/discharge cycles, thereby demonstrating good cycling stability. Moreover, even at a high current density of 20 A/g, the composite electrode retained 79.0% of its specific capacitance at 1 A/g, thus confirming its excellent rate performance. An asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) with a wider potential window and higher energy density was assembled by using 3 M KOH as the electrolyte, the CoTe@rGO electrode as the positive electrode, and active carbon as the negative electrode. The operating voltage of the supercapacitor could be increased to 1.6 V, and its specific capacitance could reach 112.6 F/g at 1 A/g. The specific capacitance retention rate of the fabricated supercapacitor after 5000 charge/discharge cycles at 5 A/g was 87.1%, which confirms its excellent cycling stability. In addition, the ASC revealed a high energy density of 40.04 W·h/kg at a power density of 799.91 W/kg and a high power density of 4004.93 W/kg at an energy density of 33.43 W·h/kg. These results collectively show that CoTe@rGO materials have broad application prospects.