Sensible design of open-porous spherical architectures for hybrid supercapacitors with improved high-rate capability

Hybrid supercapacitors show high energy densities with good long-term cycling stability when used as energy sources. However, their poor rate performance as a consequence of their low ionic diffusion capability at high currents during cycling should be improved. Here, we propose using a spray-drying process to fabricate a novel structure comprising open-porous spherical lithium manganese oxide as an electrode material for hybrid supercapacitors. The resultant hybrid supercapacitor comprising full-cell systems shows a high specific capacitance (33.8 F cm⁻³ at a current of 1 A) and remarkable high-rate performance (25.6 F cm⁻³ at a current of 16 A). Moreover, outstanding cycling stability of 83% was attained at a current of 2 A after 5400 cycles. Our new strategy provides a useful methodology to increase the abundance of electrochemically active sites by fabricating a spherical structure using nanosized primary particles, which also leads to shorter diffusion pathways and to improved ionic electron transport because of the open-porous structure of the electrode materials.