Carbon-transition metal oxide electrodes: Understanding the role of surface engineering for high energy density supercapacitors.

Supercapacitors store electrical energy by ion adsorption at the interface of the electrode-electrolyte (electric double layer capacitance, EDLC), or through faradaic process involving direct transfer of electrons via oxidation/reduction reactions at one electrode to the other (pseudocapacitance). The present minireview describes the recent development and progress of carbon-transition metal oxides-based hybrid materials that showed great promise as an efficient electrode towards supercapacitors among various material types. The review describes the synthetic methods and electrode preparation techniques along with the changes in the physical and chemical properties of each component in the hybrid materials. The key factors in deriving both EDLC and pseudocapacitance storage mechanisms are also identified in the hope of pointing to the successful hybrid design principles. For example, a strong carbon-metal oxide interaction was identified as most important in facilitating the charge transfer process and activating high energy storage mechanism, and thus methodologies to establish a robust carbon-metal oxide contact are discussed. Finally, this article concludes with suggestions for the future development of the fabrication of high performance C-TMO hybrid supercapacitor electrodes.