Surfactant tuned morphology of mesoporous β-Co(OH)2/CMC nanoflakes: a prospective candidate for supercapacitors

• Published in: Journal of solid state electrochemistry Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 1325 - 1338
• Main Authors: Babu, I. Manohara, William, J. Johnson, Muralidharan, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 19.05.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Analytical Chemistry; Capacitance; Carboxymethyl cellulose; Cations; Cellulose; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cobalt; Condensed Matter Physics; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemistry; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Energy Storage; Flux density; Morphology; Original Paper; Physical Chemistry; Storage systems; Supercapacitors; Surfactants; Carboxymethyl cellulose; Supercapacitor; Precipitation; Nanoflakes
• ISSN: 1432-8488; 1433-0768
• DOI: 10.1007/s10008-019-04223-7

Innovative electrode materials are the need of the hour towards the fabrication of electrochemical energy storage systems with superior performance. In the objective of designing flexible high power supercapacitors, herein, we have synthesized β -cobalt hydroxide/carboxymethyl cellulose nanoflakes via a facile route using anionic, cationic, and non-ionic structure directing agents. When tested as a supercapacitor electrode, β -cobalt hydroxide/carboxymethyl cellulose nanoflakes prepared using cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium chloride) exhibit better electrochemical behaviour including specific capacitance (306 C g −1 at a scan rate of 2 mV s −1 ), excellent cycle life (89% capacitance retention even after 5000 repeated charge/discharge cycles) in an aqueous alkaline solution. Furthermore, we have designed an asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing β -cobalt hydroxide/carboxymethyl cellulose and activated carbon as electrodes which is capable of delivering an energy density of 29.7 W h kg −1 with the power density of 695 W kg −1 . The notable features of this device open pathways for the new electrode materials in supercapacitors. Graphical abstract CTAC-assisted β -Co(OH) 2 /CMC nanoflakes provide plenty of pathways for ion intercalation that results in excellent electrochemical performance.