Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of ruthenium-decorated titanium boride nanocomposite structures for high-performance supercapacitors

TiB2 is extensively explored due to its outstanding properties, for example, high electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity, chemical stability, high hardness, low density, and solidity. Herein, we developed a novel nanocomposite structure (NCS) featuring exfoliated TiB2 decorated with Ru nanoparticles, denoted as exfoliated TiB2@Ru. This novel electrode material was synthesized using an ultrasound-assisted method. Both the pristine TiB2 and exfoliated TiB2@Ru NCS were characterized by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, AFM, and XPS analyses. Furthermore, the electrochemical characteristics of all TiB2 electrodes were measured by CV, GCD, and EIS to evaluate their application to supercapacitors. The exfoliated TiB2@Ru NCS exhibited an enhanced specific capacitance of 744 F/g compared with exfoliated TiB2 (464 F/g) and pristine TiB2 (296 F/g) at a current density of 1 A/g in 3 M KOH electrolyte solution using a three-electrode system. The as-prepared exfoliated TiB2@Ru solid-state supercapacitor delivered a significantly higher capacity retention of 97 % than the pristine TiB2 (92 %), even after 5000 cycles. Therefore, the interconnected sheet-like exfoliated TiB2@Ru NCS electrode offers excellent capacitive performance for energy storage applications. As a result, the design and/or suitability for improving highly active electrochemical sites in exfoliated TiB2 through the incorporation of Ru nanoparticles by ultrasonic method showed excellent charge storage performance.