Large-area ultrathin 2D Co(OH)2nanosheets: a bifunctional electrode material for supercapacitor and water oxidation

Ultrathin film of active materials having thickness <5 nm emerged as a promising candidate for miniaturized energy storage and conversion devices. However, the small lateral size restricts its real device applications. Herein, we report large area, 2D, ultrathin (thickness: 4.3 ± 0.3 nm) Co(OH)2nanosheets as bifunctional electrode material for supercapacitor and oxygen evolution reaction developed by ionic layer epitaxy method at the water-air interface. The symmetric supercapacitor device exhibited excellent volumetric capacitance of 2313 F/cm3at 0.4 mA/cm2current density. Additionally, it exhibited a remarkable volumetric energy density of 0.205 Wh/cm3at a power density of 0.145 W/cm3,which is better than reported 2D electrode materials. Furthermore, the cobalt hydroxide (Co(OH)2) ultrathin-film electrodes showed improved oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalytic activity with low overpotential (ƞ10, 330 mV) and Tafel slope (47 mV/dec). The structural and morphological investigations after long-term operations show substantial stability of the electrode material. The theoretical investigations of electronic structures, quantum capacitance, and free energy profiles for the oxygen evolution reaction mechanism corroborate the experimental results.