Ultrathin Mesoporous RuCo2O4 Nanoflakes: An Advanced Electrode for High-Performance Asymmetric Supercapacitors

A new ruthenium cobalt oxide (RuCo2O4) with a unique marigold-like nanostructure and excellent performance as an advanced electrode material has been successfully prepared by a simple electrodeposition (potentiodynamic mode) method. The RuCo2O4 marigolds consist of numerous clusters of ultrathin mesoporous nanoflakes, leaving a large interspace between them to provide numerous electrochemically active sites. Strikingly, this unique marigold-like nanostructure provided excellent electrochemical performance in terms of high energy-storage capacitance (1469Fg(-1) at 6Ag(-1)) with excellent rate proficiency and long-lasting operating cycling stability (ca. 91.3% capacitance retention after 3000cycles), confirming that the mesoporous nanoflakes participate in the ultrafast electrochemical reactions. Furthermore, an asymmetric supercapacitor was assembled using RuCo2O4 (positive electrode) and activated carbon (negative electrode) with aqueous KOH electrolyte. The asymmetric design allowed an upgraded potential range of 1.4V, which further provided a good energy density of 32.6Whkg(-1) (1.1mWhcm(-3)). More importantly, the cell delivered an energy density of 12.4Whkg(-1) even at a maximum power density of 3.2kWkg(-1), which is noticeably superior to carbon-based symmetric systems.