Influence of electrochemically deposited polypyrrole layers on NiCo2O4-decorated carbon fiber paper electrodes for high-performance hybrid supercapacitor applications

Abstract

The electrochemically polypyrrole (PPy) layer deposited on NiCo2O4-decorated carbon fiber paper (PPy-NiCo2O4@CFP) composites was prepared by a consecutive two-step process. At first, the hierarchically NiCo2O4-decorated CFP (NiCo2O4@CFP) composite was prepared by a low temperature hydrothermal method. Secondly, the PPy layer was deposited onto the NiCo2O4@CFP composites using an electrochemical deposition method. The potential sweeping between −0.2 and 1.0 V was performed at a scan rate of 50 mV s−1 for various (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20) cycles in the presence of a pyrrole monomer. SEM images clearly indicated that the NiCo2O4 nanostructures were uniformly grown over the CFP. Further, the PPy layer was also uniformly hierarchically-deposited over the NiCo2O4@CFP composites. The surface morphologies of the obtained PPy-NiCo2O4@CFP composites were dramatically changed depending on the electrodeposition cycles of PPy. We have prepared various PPy-NiCo2O4@CFP hybrid composites with different electrodeposition cycles of PPy layers, and the effects of electrodeposited PPy layers were investigated. The PPy-NiCo2O4@CFP composites with the 15 cycles electrodeposited PPy layers (PPy15-NiCo2O4@CFP//N-rGO@CFP) showed a maximum specific capacitance of ~239 F g−1 at 2 A g−1 and excellent energy density of 64.95 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 1400.2 W kg−1.