Supplementary data

LaB6 nanowires for supercapacitors

Qi Xue, Yan Tian, Shaozhi Deng, Yan Huang, Minshen Zhu, Zengxia Pei, Hongfei Li, Fei
Liu*, Chunyi Zhi*

Table S1 comparison of capacitance and cycling stability.

Electrode materials Specific capacitance Scan rate or Cycling ability (80% Reference
discharging capacitance retention)
current density

3D-graphene powders on a 15.6 mF cm−2 5 mV s−1 NA 1

flexible graphite-paper substrate

WO3 15.24 mF cm−2 0.14 NA 2

WO3 films and silver nanowires 13.6 mF cm−2 5 mV s−1 5000 3

zirconium MOF 5.09 mF cm−2 NA 10000 4

carbon ink on metal mesh 47.4 mF cm−2 2 mV s−1 20,000 5

SnSe nanocrystal 1.8 mF cm−2 20 μAcm-2 2200 6

RuO2/Au/carbon 2.2 mF cm−2 100 mV s−1 1200 7

nanomembrane

This work 20.58 mF cm−2 0.1 mA cm−2 10000

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Figure S1. (a) GCD profiles of CFC and LaB6-CFC in 1M Na2SO4 measured at a discharging
energy density of 0.1 mA cm−2. (b) GCD profiles of CFC and LaB6-CFC in 1M Na2SO4
measured at a discharging energy density of 0.2 mA cm−2.

As seen in Figure S1, the LaB6-CFC electrode represents a much-enlarged capacitance than
CFC at a current density of 0.1 mA cm−2. At a current density of 0.1 mA cm−2, the LaB6-CFC
electrode still show a much better performance than CFC.

Figure S2. (a) CV curves of CFC and LaB6-CFC electrode at a scan rate of 5 mV s −1. (b) CV
profiles of LaB6-CFC electrode at different scan rates in the range of 5–100 mV s −1. (c) The
GCD curves of LaB6-CFC electrode at current densities of 0.1–1 mA cm−2. (d) EIS plot of
LaB6-CFC NWs electrode. All tests were performed with 1.0 M H2SO4 solution as electrolyte.

Figure S2a shows the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves of CFC and LaB6-CFC electrode at a
scan rate of 5 mV s−1 in the acidic electrolyte. The CV area of the LaB6-CFC electrode is
enlarged in comparison with that of CFC, indicating great capacitance contribution from the
LaB6 NWs. As shown in Figure S2b, it is noted that CV curves of LaB6-CFC electrode present
obvious redox peaks at around 0.4 and 0.5 V. The shape of CV profiles are maintained at
2
larger scan rates of 10-100 mV s−1. Interestingly, the areal specific capacitance of LaB6-CFC
electrode is 7.48 mF cm−2 at 5 mV s−1 and 5.19 mF cm−2 at 100 mV s−1 retaining 69.39% of
initial capacitance, which indicates good rate performance (Figure S3) (The contribution from
CFC is deducted from all capacitance numbers and thus the reported capacitance is solely
originated from LaB6 NWs, the same hereinafter). Figure S2c exhibits the galvanostatic
charge−discharge (GCD) curves of LaB6-CFC electrode in 1M H2SO4. Calculated from the
GCD curves, a specific capacitance of 6.63 mF cm−2 was achieved which is in consistent with
the values obtained from the CV curves. The internal resistance of LaB6-CFC electrode in 1M
H2SO4 is 2.7 Ω and the charge transfer resistance is 0.8 Ω, indicating good contact between
the LaB6 NWs and CFC current collector (Figure S2d). In comparison with the performance
of LaB6 NWs in 1 M H2SO4, LaB6 NWs in 1 M Na2SO4 demonstrated higher capacitance,
which benefited from higher charge transfer speed and lower internal resistance.

Figure S3. Areal capacitances of LaB6-CFC electrode derived from the CV curves at different
scan rate in 1M H2SO4.

Figure S4. (a) GCD profiles of CFC and LaB6-CFC electrodes in 1M H2SO4 measured at a
discharging energy density of 0.1 mA cm−2. (b) GCD profiles of LaB6-CFC in 1M H2SO4
measured at a discharging energy density of 1 mA cm−2.

As seen in Figure S4a, the GCD curves of LaB6-CFC electrode represents a prolonged
discharging time. The accurate capacitance of LaB6-CFC electrode in the article is obtained
through subtracting the capacitance of LaB6-CFC electrode by the capacitance of CFC
electrode in same electrolyte. In addition, the LaB6-CFC electrode displayed good cycling
performance at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 (Figure S4b).
3
Figure S5. The CV curves of LaB6-CFC in 1M Na2SO4 dislodging the capacitance
contribution of CFC.

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