Impact of Electrolyte on Pseudocapacitance and Stability of Porous Titanium Nitride (TiN) Monolithic Electrode

We report the fabrication of porous titanium nitride (TiN) monoliths through the ammonolysis of porous TiO2 monoliths prepared via the sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation. The obtained TiN monoliths possess good mechanical strength as well as excellent electric conductivity with a superconducting transition at Tc ∼5.0 K. We have investigated the electrochemical properties of the porous TiN monoliths as an electrode using various electrolytes. The results reveal that the pseudocapacitance of TiN increases in the order of K+ < Na+ < Li+ contrary to the case of EDL capacitance in neutral aqueous electrolytes. It is also found that acidic and strongly basic electrolytes are not suitable due to high corrosivity, while there is no significant deterioration when neutral aqueous electrolytes and organic electrolytes are used.