CoFe2O4 Nanoparticle-Decorated 2D MXene: A Novel Hybrid Material for Supercapacitor Applications

The development of highly efficient electrode materials for high power devices is one of the cutting-edge research areas in advanced energy applications. Recently, MXene has gained tremendous interest among the research community because of its extraordinary electrochemical properties as compared to other two-dimensional layered materials such as graphene/MoS2. However, the supercapacitive performance of MXene as an electrode material is hindered by the restacking of its layers due to functional group interactions. To overcome this problem, here in this article, we explored MXene and its composites with cobalt ferrite [CoFe2O4] nanoparticles (CoF NPs) for battery-like hybrid supercapacitor applications. NPs were applied to use them as interlayer spacers between MXene layers. By the electrochemical studies, it is proved that the composite (CoF/MXene) can provide better electrochemical properties than individual ferrite or MXene. The maximum specific capacitance (C-sp) of CoF NPs, MXene, and CoF/MXene composites was observed to be about 594, 1046.25, and 1268.75 Fg(-1) at 1 A g(-1), respectively. The calculated specific capacity (sp. capacity) of the CoF/MXene composite was about 440 Cg-(1) at 1 A g(-1) and proved to be an excellent hybrid electrode material by providing only 0.25 Omega charge transfer resistance. The as-synthesized material demonstrated the excellent capacitance retention, about 97%, up to 5000 cycles.