Template-free approach to synthesize hierarchical porous nickel cobalt oxides for supercapacitors

Abstract

Nickel cobalt oxides with various Ni/Co ratios were synthesized using a facile template-free approach for electrochemical supercapacitors. The texture and morphology of the nanocomposites were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET). The results show that a hierarchical porous structure assembled from nanoflakes with a thickness of ∼10 nm was obtained, and the ratio of nickel to cobalt in the nanocomposites was very close to the precursors. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge and discharge tests were carried out to study the electrochemical performance. Both nickel cobalt oxides (Ni-Co-O-1 with Ni : Co = 1, Ni-Co-O-2 with Ni : Co = 2) outperform pure NiO and Co(3)O(4). The Ni-Co-O-1 and Ni-Co-O-2 possess high specific capacities of 778.2 and 867.3 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) and capacitance retentions of 84.1% and 92.3% at 10 A g(-1), respectively. After full activation, the Ni-Co-O-1 and Ni-Co-O-2 could achieve a maximum value of 971 and 1550 F g(-1) and remain at ∼907 and ∼1450 F g(-1) at 4 A g(-1), respectively. Also, the nickel cobalt oxides show high capacity retention when fast charging.