Influence of surface chemistry and point defects in TiN based electrodes on electrochemical capacitive storage activity

Amine Achour (1) , Mohammad Badiul Islam (2) , Iftikhar Ahmad (2) , Laurent Le Brizoual (3) , Abdou Djouadi (4) , Thierry Brousse (5)

1 UNamur - Université de Namur [Namur]
2 KSU - King Saud University [Riyadh]
3 IETR - Institut d'Électronique et des Technologies du numéRique
4 UN - Université de Nantes
5 IMN - Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel

The effect of surface chemistry of reactive sputtered TiN electrodes in the electrochemical capacitors (ECs) was investigated. The TiN films were produced on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed surface defects generation with no effect on morphology. Cyclic voltammetry experiments were performed in aqueous 0.5 M K2SO4 solution and 1 M Et4NBF4 ((tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate)) organic electrolyte. The presence of oxygen vacancies and Ti interstitials on the top surface layer lead to enhanced electrochemical capacitive charge storage. Such findings open the way to design nitride films with optimized surface chemistry for use in the ECs.

Keywords: Titanium nitride; XPS; Surface defects; Cyclic voltammetry; Electrochemical capacitor

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Material chemistry; Chemical Sciences; Other

Amine Achour, Mohammad Badiul Islam, Iftikhar Ahmad, Laurent Le Brizoual, Abdou Djouadi, et al.. Influence of surface chemistry and point defects in TiN based electrodes on electrochemical capacitive storage activity. Scripta Materialia, 2018, 153, pp.59-62. ⟨10.1016/j.scriptamat.2018.04.051⟩. ⟨hal-01808897v2⟩