Laboratory based synthesis of the pure form of gananite (BiF₃) nanoparticles: a potential material for electrochemical supercapacitor application

Gananite is a rare bismuth based mineral with a general formula of bismuth trifluoride (BiF₃). In this manuscript, a facile laboratory based wet-chemical method has been reported for the synthesis of organic molecule stabilized BiF₃ nanoparticles for the electrochemical supercapacitor application. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicates the crystalline nature of the BiF₃ nanoparticles with the pure form of the face centered cubic crystal structure. At current densities of 2 and 70 A g^-1, the material exhibited specific capacitances of 1127 and 400 F g^-1, respectively, in the presence of 10 wt% of carbon black as a dopant, within a potential range from -1.0 to 0.0 V. Under the above mentioned conditions the capacitor also showed superior energy and power density values (313 and 112 W h kg^-1 at 1.9 and 70 kW kg^-1, respectively). The BiF₃ based device displays high cycling stability and retains 96% of its initial specific capacitance after 10³ uninterrupted charge-discharge cycles at a current density of 10 A g^-1.