Ultrasonication-assisted fabrication of hierarchical architectures of copper oxide/zinc antimonate nanocomposites based supercapacitor electrode materials

Abstract

In this work, a new nanohybrid consisting of copper oxide and zinc antimonate was designed using ultrasonication assisted homogenous magnetic stirring approach and investigated their performance as an electrode material for supercapacitors. Combination of the duo could enhance the electrical conductivity and charge storage capacity of whole nanostructured electrode, which is very much essential for supercapacitor application. Primarily, the prepared nanohybrid electrode material was investigated through XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, UV-DRS, PL and XPS to determine their structural, morphological, optical and compositional characteristics. Thereafter, the electrochemical properties of the nanohybrid electrode were investigated using CV, GCD and EIS studies in 1.0 M KOH solution. The fabricated nanohybrid electrode material exhibits exceptional electrochemical performance by delivering maximum specific capacitance of 257.14 F g−1 at a current density of 12.5 A g−1. The nanocomposite showed high cycling stability of 102.0% even after 2000 cycles at a current density of 10.0 A g−1. These exceptional electrochemical characteristics of CuO/ZnSb2O6 nanocomposites are due to their dual nanorod morphology, influence of ultrasonication on non-aggregated nanocomposite formation, presence of more number of electrochemical active sites, and their synergistic interactions. The obtained results confirmed that CuO/ZnSb2O6 nanocomposites could be a potential candidate as electrode materials for supercapacitors.