Heterogeneous Ni–Co phosphide/phosphate with a specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure for high-performance hybrid supercapacitor and alkaline zinc-metal battery applications

[Display omitted] •Heterogeneous Ni–Co phosphide/phosphate with a specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure has been constructed.•The heterogeneous sample exhibits improved electrolyte interfacial property from the specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure.•The heterogeneous sample combines the merits from bimetal phosphide and phosphate.•The heterogeneous sample exhibits promising potential for both HSC and AZB applications. Constructing well-defined nanostructures consisting of the multiple components with distinctive features are a promising but challenging strategy to develop advanced electroactive materials for energy storage applications. Herein, heterogeneous Ni–Co phosphide/phosphate with a specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure has been synthesized as advanced electroactive materials for both hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) and alkaline zinc-metal battery (AZB) applications. The heterogeneous Ni–Co phosphide/phosphate combines the merits of improved electrolyte interfacial property from the specific hollow sea-urchin-like structure, high electron-conductivity of phosphide, and better ion adsorption and solid diffusion property of phosphate. As a result, the Ni–Co phosphide/phosphate achieves a high capacity to 180.7 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1, excellent rate capability of 51% capacity retention when the specific current increases by 50 times, and stable cycling stability of 85% capacity retention when cycled for 1000 cycles. Ex situ test was conducted to investigate the formation mechanism for the hollow and sea-urchin-like structure, which can be ascribed to the anion exchange reaction between pre-formed hydroxide and CO32– ions. When used to assemble HSCs with reduced graphene oxide (RGO), the HSCs exhibit a high specific energy of 49.4 W h kg−1, an ultrahigh specific power to 11.7 kW kg−1, and an eminent cycling stability over 10,000 cycles. Meanwhile, Ni2Co–P/POx-based AZB also achieves both high-energy and high-power performance with the specific energy of 308.0 W h kg−1 at 828.4 W kg−1 and 117.4 W h kg−1 at 30.8 kW kg−1. These results above suggest that heterogeneous Ni–Co phosphide/phosphate has great potential to be used as a candidate for both HSC and AZB applications.