Surface and electrochemical properties of flower-like Cu-NiO compounds

Abstract

In this work, NiO and CuxNiO (x = 30, 40, 50%) compounds were prepared by a simple hydrothermal and precipitation method using dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) as the template. The effect of adding copper on the morphology and pseudocapacitance behavior of NiO was investigated. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) isotherm, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Also, XPS analysis was carried out on the NiO and Cu30 samples to determine the elemental composition. They showed flower-like morphologies and their effect on the electrochemical pseudocapacitance behavior was studied by Cyclic Voltammetry. Adding copper improved the specific capacitance and morphology of pure NiO samples. The Cu50NiO sample had the most amount of capacitance 686.13 Fg−1 at the scan rate of 40 m Vs−1.