Effect of variation of metals in quaternary metal oxide based electrodes on carbon fiber for super capacitor application

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to explore novel, cost-effective, environmental friendly electrode materials with enhanced supercapacitor performance. Cobalt and nickel oxide based materials have been widely used for supercapacitor applications. In this work, Nickel-Cobalt-Molybdenum in combination with another metal of group (Ag, Mn, Cu), based quaternary metal oxide (QMO), were directly grown over a carbon fiber via a simple hydrothermal route. Hierarchical 3-D nanostructures of QMOs were synthesized over carbon fiber and characterized to investigate the effect of different metals over electrochemical performance. The Nickel-Cobalt-Molybdenum-Silver oxide electrode attained the best electrocapacitive performance of 530 Fg−1 at current density of 1 Ag−1 owing to its unique structure and high surface area. The fabricated supercapacitor hybrid device composed of the Ni-Co-Mo-Ag oxide positive electrode and activated carbon negative electrode showed capacitance 126 Fg−1 at current density of 1 Ag−1 with a potential window of 0.4–0.5 V and the 97 % capacitance retention. This facile synthesis of novel quaternary metal oxides provides new possibilities for making flexible energy storage devices with higher electro capacitive ability.