A general strategy to layered transition-metal hydroxide nanocones: tuning the composition for high electrochemical performance.

A general and facile strategy for the synthesis of a large family of monometallic (Co, Ni) and bimetallic (Co-Ni, Co-Cu and Co-Zn) hydroxide nanocones (NCs) intercalated with DS ions is demonstrated. The basal spacing of the NCs can be varied by adjusting the intercalated DS amount. Especially, electrochemical characterizations reveal that bimetallic Co-Ni hydroxide NCs have a higher specific capacitance than their monometallic counterpart. These results suggest the importance of rational designing layered hydroxide NCs with tuned transition-metal composition for high-performance energy storage devices.