Aligned carbon nanotube/zinc oxide nanowire hybrids as high performance electrodes for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Carbon nanotube/metal oxide based hybrids are envisioned as high performance electrochemical energy storage electrodes since these systems can provide improved performances utilizing an electric double layer coupled with fast faradaic pseudocapacitive charge storage mechanisms. In this work, we show that high performance supercapacitor electrodes with a specific capacitance of ∼192 F/g along with a maximum energy density of ∼3.8 W h/kg and a power density of ∼28 kW/kg can be achieved by synthesizing zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO NWs) directly on top of aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). In comparison to pristine MWCNTs, these constitute a 12-fold of increase in specific capacitance as well as corresponding power and energy density values. These electrodes also possess high cycling stability and were able to retain ∼99% of their specific capacitance value over 2000 charging discharging cycles. These findings indicate potential use of a MWCNT/ZnO NW hybrid material for future electrochemical energy storage applications.