Pulsed laser deposition of the porous nickel oxide thin film at room temperature for high-rate pseudocapacitive energy storage

Abstract

This work reports the pulsed laser reactive deposition of the NiO thin film by ablating nickel targets in low-pressure O2 atmosphere at room temperature. The electrode exhibits a porous structure, which facilitates ion transport in the electrode/electrolyte. When applied as an electrode, the porous NiO film exhibits the high specific capacitance (835F g−1 at 1A g−1). Meanwhile, the film exhibits a superb rate capability. At a very high current density of 40A g−1 there is more than 59% retention in the capacitance relative to 1A g−1. Furthermore, the excellent cycling performance (94% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles) is achieved for the film electrode. These results demonstrate that pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a very promising technique for making the film electrodes for applications in electrochemical energy storage.