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Luo et al. Microstructures 2023;3:2023011 Microstructures
DOI: 10.20517/microstructures.2022.41

Research Article Open Access

Triethanolamine assisted synthesis of bimetallic

nickel cobalt nitride/nitrogen-doped carbon hollow
nanoflowers for supercapacitor

Qiao Luo, Congcong Lu, Lingran Liu, Maiyong Zhu

Research School of Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013,
Jiangsu, China.
Correspondence to: Dr. Maiyong Zhu, Research School of Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering,
Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu, China. E-mail: maiyongzhu@ujs.edu.cn

How to cite this article: Luo Q, Lu C, Liu L, Zhu M. Triethanolamine assisted synthesis of bimetallic nickel cobalt
nitride/nitrogen-doped carbon hollow nanoflowers for supercapacitor. Microstructures 2023;3:2023011.
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/microstructures.2022.41

Received: 12 Nov 2022 First Decision: 8 Dec 2022 Revised: 22 Dec 2022 Accepted: 13 Jan 2023 Published: 30 Jan 2023

Academic Editor: Lianzhou Wang Copy Editor: Fangling Lan Production Editor: Fangling Lan

Abstract
Supercapacitors (SCs) have drawn growing attention due to their advantages in fast charge/discharge over
batteries. Benefiting from their prominent electrical conductivity and metal-like characteristics, transition metal
nitrides have emerged as promising electrode materials for SCs. Traditional ways to prepare metal nitrides through
ammonolysis are inconvenient and induce severe environmental pollution. Herein, we report a facile synthetic
method toward heterogenous Ni N-Co N 0.67 /nitrogen-doped carbon (Ni N-Co N 0.67 /NC) hollow nanoflower via
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pyrolyzing NiCo-TEOA (triethanolamine) complex precursor applying urea as nitrogen source. Electrochemical
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tests demonstrate that the Ni N-Co N 0.67 /NC nanoflower delivers good specific capacitance (1582 F g at 1 A g )
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and steady cycle performance (83.79% after 5000 cycles). Moreover, the as-assembled Ni N-Co N 0.67 /NC//AC
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cell can reach a peak energy density of 32.4 W h kg at a power density of 851.3 W kg . The excellent
electrochemical performance confirms extensive application prospects of the Ni N-Co N 0.67 /NC nanoflower.
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Keywords: Nanoflower, hollow structure, transition metal nitride, nitrogen-doped carbon, supercapacitor
INTRODUCTION
The rapid development of clean and renewable energy in various fields including electric vehicles and

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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