Porous Carbon Nanosheets Armoring 3D Current Collectors toward Ultrahigh Mass Loading for High-Energy-Density...

The in situ growth of active materials on 3D current collectors (such as Ni foams) presents facile and efficient access to high-performance supercapacitors. However, the low surface area of current collectors limits the mass loading, microstructure, and capacitive performance of active materials thereon. Herein, we develop a novel surface modification with hierarchical N-rich carbon nanosheets on Ni foams via a simple sol-gel method. At the same time, its favorable effects on mass loading and utilization are demonstrated using NiCoMn-carbonate hydroxide (NCM) as a model active material. Specifically, the carbon modification greatly boosts the current collector's specific surface area and enables the growth of dense NCM nanoneedles with controllable mass loading ranging from 5.2 to 23.1 mg cm^-2. Meanwhile, the correlation between mass loading and utilization is systematically studied, which shows the well-maintained energy storage efficiency due to the conducive surface modification. As a result, excellent performance with the ultrahigh area-specific capacity of 19.36 F cm^-2 at 2 mA cm^-2 in the three-electrode configuration and remarkable area-specific energy density of 1352 μW h cm^-2 in the solid-state asymmetric device can be achieved, demonstrating a prospective pathway toward facile and effective current collector designs for high-energy/power-density supercapacitors.