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    Niobium carbide nanofibers as a versatile precursor for high power supercapacitor and high energy battery electrodes
    (London [u.a.] : RSC, 2016) Tolosa, Aura; Krüner, Benjamin; Fleischmann, Simon; Jäckel, Nicolas; Zeiger, Marco; Aslan, Mesut; Grobelsek, Ingrid; Presser, Volker
    This study presents electrospun niobium carbide/carbon (NbC/C) hybrid nanofibers, with an average diameter of 69 ± 30 nm, as a facile precursor to derive either highly nanoporous niobium carbide-derived carbon (NbC–CDC) fibers for supercapacitor applications or niobium pentoxide/carbon (Nb2O5/C) hybrid fibers for battery-like energy storage. In all cases, the electrodes consist of binder-free and free-standing nanofiber mats that can be used without further conductive additives. Chlorine gas treatment conformally transforms NbC nanofiber mats into NbC–CDC fibers with a specific surface area of 1508 m2 g−1. These nanofibers show a maximum specific energy of 19.5 W h kg−1 at low power and 7.6 W h kg−1 at a high specific power of 30 kW kg−1 in an organic electrolyte. CO2 treatment transforms NbC into T-Nb2O5/C hybrid nanofiber mats that provide a maximum capacity of 156 mA h g−1. The presence of graphitic carbon in the hybrid nanofibers enabled high power handling, maintaining 50% of the initial energy storage capacity at a high rate of 10 A g−1 (64 C-rate). When benchmarked for an asymmetric full-cell, a maximum specific energy of 86 W h kg−1 was obtained. The high specific power for both systems, NbC–CDC and T-Nb2O5/C, resulted from the excellent charge propagation in the continuous nanofiber network and the high graphitization of the carbon structure.
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    MXene as a novel intercalation-type pseudocapacitive cathode and anode for capacitive deionization
    (London [u.a.] : RSC, 2016) Srimuk, Pattarachai; Kaasik, Friedrich; Krüner, Benjamin; Tolosa, Aura; Fleischmann, Simon; Jäckel, Nicolas; Tekeli, Mehmet C.; Aslan, Mesut; Suss, Matthew E.; Presser, Volker
    In this proof-of-concept study, we introduce and demonstrate MXene as a novel type of intercalation electrode for desalination via capacitive deionization (CDI). Traditional CDI cells employ nanoporous carbon electrodes with significant pore volume to achieve a large desalination capacity via ion electrosorption. By contrast, MXene stores charge by ion intercalation between the sheets of its two-dimensional nanolamellar structure. By this virtue, it behaves as an ideal pseudocapacitor, that is, showing capacitive electric response while intercalating both anions and cations. We synthesized Ti3C2-MXene by the conventional process of etching ternary titanium aluminum carbide i.e., the MAX phase (Ti3AlC2) with hydrofluoric acid. The MXene material was cast directly onto the porous separator of the CDI cell without added binder, and exhibited very stable performance over 30 CDI cycles with an average salt adsorption capacity of 13 ± 2 mg g−1.