Amorphous cobalt boride nanoparticles incorporated vanadium carbide MXene composite for asymmetric supercapacitor applications

The use of novel, low-cost, and efficient electrode materials in high-power energy technology is highly anticipated for the development of user-friendly products. Recently, "MXenes" have been identified as a novel class of advanced two-dimensional ( 2D) layered transition metal compounds that have piqued the interest of researchers in a variety of electrochemical applications due to their remarkable physicochemical properties that resemble other 2D materials such as graphene. Similarly, an amorphous transition metal boride compound has sparked considerable interest as a potential candidate for battery-type supercapacitor electrodes. However, the concerns about MXene layer restacking and the low electrical conductivity of metal borides limit their usefulness. Herein, we present the fabrication of a novel metal boride-MXene (CoB-V-MX) architecture using a simple one-pot chemical reduction process of cobalt boride nanoparticles and V-MXene flakes. An asymmetric hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) with activated carbon as the anode and the prepared composite as the cathode was developed. The HSC device can operate over a wider voltage range (1.6 V), distribute a high specific energy of 31.5 Wh kg(-1) at a power density of 800 W kg(-1), and retain up to 89.2% of its initial capacitance for up to 2500 charge-discharge cycles, demonstrating the increased possibility of designing a novel composite architecture in advanced energy storage applications.