In this talk, we present our approaches to realize high efficiency, high performance, next generation electrochemical energy storage devices based on DNAs and various nanomaterials. Firstly, novel electrochemical, battery-like capacitors using DNA-wrapped MWCNTs (denoted as CNT@DNA) as electrode materials are demonstrated. By using CNT@DNA, which were successfully assembled through a facial sonication treatment,. as template, a NiCo₂O₄ nanoparticle-anchored composite NiCo₂O₄-CNT@DNA was fabricated through situ precipitation coating process. Subsequently, the NiCo₂O₄-CNT@DNA and NiCo₂O₄-CNT (prepared without DNA) were used as the cathode materials to fabricate supercapacitors with high capacitive performance. The result of electrochemical test shows a high specific capacitance of NiCo₂O₄-CNT@DNA electrode of 760.0 F/g at 5 mV/s, which is higher than that of NiCo₂O₄-CNT electrode. The cycling performance of the NiCo₂O₄-CNT@DNA electrode displays a capacitance retention of 96.2% after 5000 cycles at the current density of 5 A/g. The above results demonstrate that the novel NiCo₂O₄-CNT@DNA composites can be desirable electrode materials for high performance supercapacitors in the future.

We also present our group's recent works on use of DNAs for advanced batteries including Li- S batteries and hybrid supercapacitors.