Enhanced electrochemical properties of cobalt oxide nanoparticle electrode modified with low concentration of cationic surfactant

Abstract

Metal oxides are proficient electrode materials for supercapacitors because of their physiochemical properties, especially their wide range of oxidation states that facilitate charge transfer in redox reactions and compatibility with electrolytes. Their performances can be further improved by adding surfactants, which also help with controlled synthesis, inhibit aggregation, and alter surface characteristics. The functional groups present in the surfactant molecule can undergo chemical bonding with the surface of the metal oxide, thereby modifying their surface chemistry and electronic characteristics. Recent research has focused on increasing the specific capacitance of cobalt oxide owing to its large surface area and size. The surfactants help to control the surface modification as a size-reducing agent and improve the electrochemical properties. Herein, A facile co-precipitation method is employed in synthesising cobalt oxide without cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and with different concentrations of CTAB, followed by calcination. Herein, we compare the electrochemical properties with varying concentrations of surfactant-assisted Co3O4. The modified Co3O4 electrode with a low surfactant concentration (CO 1) exhibits a highly specific capacitance of 531F/g at 5 mV/s with a potential window of 0.7 V. The CO 1 electrode is suitable for supercapacitor devices with a specific capacitance of 296F/g at 0.8 A/g. Moreover, the asymmetric supercapacitor composed of CO1//AC demonstrated a remarkable energy density of 46.2 Wh/Kg and a robust power density of 800 W/kg. These results indicate that the hierarchical porous structure accelerates electron and ion movement, lowers charge transfer resistance, and improves hybrid electrode capacitive properties.