Zinc ion capacitors (ZICs) hold great promise in large-scale energy storage by inheriting the superiorities of zinc ion batteries and supercapacitors. However, the mismatch of kinetics and capacity between a Zn anode and a capacitive-type cathode is still the Achilles' heel of this technology. Herein, porous carbons are fabricated by using tetra-alkali metal pyromellitic acid salts as precursors through a carbonization/ self-activation procedure for enhancing zinc ion storage. The optimized rubidium-activated porous carbon (RbPC) is verified to hold immense surface area, suitable porosity structure, massive lattice defects, and luxuriant oxygen functional groups. These structural and compositional merits endow RbPC with the promoted zinc ion storage capability and more matchable kinetics and capacity with a Zn anode. Consequently, RbPC-based ZIC delivers a high specific energy of 178.2 W h kg −1 and a peak power density of 72.3 kW kg −1 . A systematic ex situ characterization analysis coupled with in situ electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance tests reveal that the preeminent zinc ion storage properties are ascribed to the synergistic effect of the dual-ion adsorption and reversible chemical adsorption of RbPC. This work provides an efficient strategy to the rational design and construction of high-performance electrodes for ZICs and furthers the fundamental understanding of their charge storage mechanisms or extends the understanding toward other electrochemical energy storage devices.
fossil fuels and avoiding further environmental pollution. [4,5] To date, a variety of EES devices have been developed. In addition to the lithium-ion battery, some new energy storage devices, including zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), dual-ion batteries (DIBs), lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs), and supercapacitors (SCs), have sprung up. [6][7][8][9] Among them, SCs deliver superior power density (>10 kW kg -1 ), long cyclic stability (>10 4 cycles), and fast reversible charge/ discharge process (within seconds), which make them the leading force in EES devices. [10] For SCs, appropriate electrode materials are in favor of improving their electrochemical performances. Thus, it is a crucial demand for choosing cathode materials with excellent electrochemical properties. [11] Transition metal sulfides (cobalt sulfide, molybdenum sulfide, vanadium sulfide, nickel sulfide, manganese sulfide, etc.) are explored for their striking electrochemical properties. [12][13][14][15][16] They possess rich redox activities and thus produce high specific capacitances. [17] Nickel sulfide and cobalt sulfide are the most prominent in the alkaline system among them. Also, the electrochemical contributions from metal ions in the multi-metal sulfides can provide richer redox reactions than that of the single-metal sulfides, leading to better EES properties. [18] Therefore, cobalt-nickel sulfides are commonly used as battery-type faradaic electrode materials of SCs. [19] However, the practical application of bulky cobalt-nickel sulfides has been limited by their low specific capacitance and poor cyclic stability owing to relatively low available specific surface area. [20] Therefore, these bulky materials urgently need to be designed for more efficient utilization, such as improving surface area and increasing intrinsic conductivity.The effective design for optimizing available surface area is to control the morphology and structure of cobalt-nickel sulfides (nanotubes, nanourchins, nanosheets, nanocubes, and nanoflowers), which has been widely applied in EES. [21][22][23][24][25] Among them, well-defined cobalt-nickel sulfides nanosheets have been widely concerned owing to the shorten ion diffusion path and the enlarged surface area. [26] In addition, the effective method to increase conductivity is compositing cobalt-nickel sulfides with carbon materials. Nevertheless, the prepared materials are Supercapacitors (SCs) are considered to be a promising energy storage technology due to their superior electrochemical properties. However, to meet the continuously rising demands of energy density,
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