Facile preparation of TiO2/C3N4 hybrid materials with enhanced capacitive properties for high performance supercapacitors

A new tendency in supercapacitor research has focused on the construction of the inexpensive electrode materials with long cycle stability. In this study, TiO2/C3N4 hybrid materials are synthesized through an efficient, low-cost, facile hydrothermal approach followed by a heat treatment for the first time. The hybrid materials are further used as electrodes for supercapacitors. Interestingly, compared to pure TiO2 nanoparticles, TiO2/C3N4 hybrid materials exhibit excellent electrochemical performance with improved specific capacitance, great rate performance and cycling stability (capacitance retention of 100% after 1000 cycles), which can be attributed to good conductivity and low polarization resulting in a high utilization of active materials. Furthermore, it was found that the capacitive properties of TiO2/C3N4 hybrid were related to the pore sizes and electrical resistances of active materials. The electrode materials with smaller pore size and resistance showed higher capacitive properties. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.