Rationally designed hierarchical SiC@PANI core/shell nanowire arrays: Toward high-performance supercapacitors with high-rate performance and robust stability

In the present work, we report the exploration of electrodes based on hierarchical [email protected] ([email protected]) core/shell nanowire arrays, which are synthesized by the combined methods of chemical vapor deposition and electrodeposition. The [email protected] electrode exhibits a specific capacitance of 352 mF cm−2 (at 1 mA cm−2), which is superior to those of pure SiC and PANI counterparts. Furthermore, it behaves a rate performance with a 90.3% retention in capacitance from 1 to 20 mA cm−2, which is better than those of most PANI-based electrodes ever reported. Moreover, the as-constructed supercapacitor delivers a high energy density of 6.59 μWh cm−2 at 0.25 mW cm−2, and undergoes a robust stability with 96.8% capacitance retention over 5000 cycles, which is much higher than that of pure PANI (∼76.2%), and close to that of pure SiC counterpart (∼99%). The achieved overall excellent electrochemical performance could be mainly attributed to the rationally designed electrode, which couples the merits of both high capacity from PANI and structural stability from SiC.