General Strategy to Fabricate Ternary Metal Nitride/Carbon Nanofibers for Supercapacitors

In this work, ternary metal nitrides are proposed as novel electrode materials for supercapacitors. We selectively fabricate ternary vanadium titanium nitride/carbon (VTiN/C) nanofibers through a facile electrospinning strategy and investigate their electrochemical performance for the first time. The obtained well-interconnected VTiN/C nanofibers with VTiN nanoparticles embedded into carbon ensure rapid electron/ion transfer and offer a highly ion-accessible surface. Appealingly, the VTiN-4/C nanofibers exhibit a greatly improved performance, with a high specific capacitance (430.7Fg^-1, 0.5Ag^-1) and a good rate capability. Furthermore, the performance of the VTiN/C nanofibers is found to be controllable by adjusting the V/Ti atomic ratio. The encouraging electrochemical performance suggests that ternary VTiN could be a promising electrode material for supercapacitors. Supercapacitors: Ternary vanadium titanium nitride/carbon nanofibers are selectively fabricated by using a general and facile electrospinning strategy. The well-interconnected nanofibers enable rapid electron/ion transfer and offer a highly ion-accessible surface. The new material shows promise for applications in supercapacitors.