Ginkgo biloba-derived biogenic carbon quantum dots modified NiCo-LDH: Significantly enhanced energy density and cycle stability

Abstract

A significant development in the usage of hydroxides in energy storage applications is the creation of LDH materials with excellent electrical conductivity and structural stability. Due to their poor electrical conductivity, bimetallic layered double hydroxides have weak rate performance and limited cycling ability. To address these issues, carbon quantum dots derived from waste Ginkgo biloba and labeled as GBC were incorporated in the preparation of NiCo-LDH. With the many oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface, GBC increases the composite's wettability while maintaining the LDH lamellar structure. It can also create localized electron-rich regions, which give the material more space and channels for electron transport, improving electrical conductivity and rate performance. Furthermore, GBC is evenly dispersed throughout the LDH skeleton, giving the composites a homogenous surface state that can mitigate the structural collapse issue brought on by the volume change during cycling. The findings demonstrate that by modulating the amount of GBC, NiCo-LDH/GBC-20 performs better electrochemically than NiCo-LDH. The capacity was 276.1 mAh g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹, an 84.1 % improvement over NiCo-LDH. Finally, the energy density displayed by the NiCo-LDH/GBC-20//AC HSC device is 72.5 Wh kg-1 (at 798.7 W kg⁻¹), and maintains 78.2 % of its original capacity after 12,000 cycles.