Study on designated 3D nickel carbonate hydroxide hydrate on different types of Ni foams for supercapattery

Abstract

Metal carbonate hydroxide hydrates are intensively explored in industries as a precursor however, their exploration in energy storage application is still in its infant stage. Thus, in this work, a highly performing 3D nickel carbonate hydroxide hydrate (NCHH) was attempted via hydrothermal method by adjusting the nickel chloride hexahydrate to urea ratio. On top of that, a novel approach on electrochemical enhancement was done by varying the specification of the substrate (Ni foam). Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and N2 Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were performed, and it was perceived that morphological properties of the Ni-foam (NF) play a vital role in the enhancement of electrochemical performance. From the three different NFs analysed, NF with a flat branch and rough surface shows a significant electrochemical performance elevation of optimized NCHH in terms of specific capacitance (from 1062.67 Fg−1 to 1746.17 Fg−1) and energy density (from 33.60 Wh kg−1 to 56.48 Wh kg−1). Supercapattery was then assembled using the optimized NCHH as the positive terminal and activated carbon as the negative terminal. The device delivered a satisfactory energy density of 12.19 Wh kg−1 at 3 Ag−1 with a magnificent power density of 16,035 W kg−1 at 10 Ag−1. Together, it revealed a fascinating cyclic stability of 97.21 % over 10,000 cycles.