Carbon sheathed molybdenum nitride nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide as high-capacity sodium-ion battery anodes and supercapacitors

Abstract

Despite possessing excellent physical, chemical and electrical properties, early transition metal nitrides are seldom investigated as electrodes in energy storage applications, especially in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Herein, we report the synthesis of carbon encapsulated molybdenum nitride nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide (Mo₂N@C-rGO) by a fast and facile microwave technique and their applicability as electrodes in sodium-ion batteries. Our results reveal that the hybridization of insertion and conversion type of mechanism by graphene and Mo₂N, respectively, results in a high sodium-ion retention of 487.2 mA h g⁻¹ even after 100 cycles. When applied as supercapacitor electrodes, our microwave-synthesized Mo₂N@C-rGO electrodes exhibit high capacitances of 514.54 and 304.32 F g⁻¹ at current densities of 0.25 and 10 A g⁻¹, respectively, and long-term cyclability, with 96% capacitance retention after 3000 cycles.