Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013:4:1894.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms2932.

Amorphous nickel hydroxide nanospheres with ultrahigh capacitance and energy density as electrochemical pseudocapacitor materials

H B Li  1 , M H Yu, F X Wang, P Liu, Y Liang, J Xiao, C X Wang, Y X Tong, G W Yang
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Amorphous nickel hydroxide nanospheres with ultrahigh capacitance and energy density as electrochemical pseudocapacitor materials

H B Li et al. Nat Commun. 2013.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Among numerous active electrode materials, nickel hydroxide is a promising electrode in electrochemical capacitors. Nickel hydroxide research has thus far focused on the crystalline rather than the amorphous phase, despite the impressive electrochemical properties of the latter, which includes an improved electrochemical efficiency due to disorder. Here we demonstrate high-performance electrochemical supercapacitors prepared from amorphous nickel hydroxide nanospheres synthesized via simple, green electrochemistry. The amorphous nickel hydroxide electrode exhibits high capacitance (2,188 F g(-1)), and the asymmetric pseudocapacitors of the amorphous nickel hydroxide exhibit high capacitance (153 F g(-1)), high energy density (35.7 W h kg(-1) at a power density of 490 W kg(-1)) and super-long cycle life (97% and 81% charge retentions after 5,000 and 10,000 cycles, respectively). The integrated electrochemical performance of the amorphous nickel hydroxide is commensurate with crystalline materials in supercapacitors. These findings promote the application of amorphous nanostructures as advanced electrochemical pseudocapacitor materials.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Microscopy measurements of amorphous Ni(OH)2 samples.
(a,b) SEM images of the amorphous Ni(OH)2 samples synthesized on graphite electrodes. (c,d) TEM images of the amorphous Ni(OH)2 samples (the inset shows the corresponding selected-area electron-diffraction pattern). Scale bars, 1 μm (a), 100 nm (b), 0.2 μm (c) and 20 nm (d).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Spectroscopy analyses of amorphous Ni(OH)2 samples.
(a) XPS, (b) Raman and (c) infrared spectra of samples.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Electrochemical characterization of amorphous Ni(OH)2 electrode and blank electrode.
(a) CV curves of the amorphous Ni(OH)2 nanospheres at various scan rates in 1 M KOH. (b) Specific capacitance of the amorphous Ni(OH)2 nanospheres as a function of the scan rates based on the CV curves. (c) CV curves of the blank electrode at various scan rates in 1 M KOH.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Electrochemical stability of amorphous Ni(OH)2 samples.
(a) Charge–discharge curves of amorphous Ni(OH)2 nanospheres at various current densities (ranging from 20 to 70 A g−1). (b) Cycle performance of amorphous Ni(OH)2 samples measured at a scan rate of 100 mV s−1 for 10,000 cycles.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Electrochemical characterization of asymmetric capacitor.
(a) CV curves of the amorphous Ni(OH)2–AC-based asymmetric capacitor at various scan rates in 1 M KOH. (b) Specific capacitance of the asymmetric capacitor as a function of scan rate based on the CV curves. (c) Charge–discharge curves of the capacitor at various current densities (ranging from 4.3 to 10.6 A g−1). (d) Cycle performance of the asymmetric capacitor measured at a scan rate of 50 mV s−1 for 10,000 cycles. (e) Power and energy density of the amorphous Ni(OH)2 supercapacitors. The inset presents the CV curves of the asymmetric supercapacitor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Winter M. & Brodd R. J. What are batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors. Chem. Rev. 104, 4245–4269 (2004). - PubMed
    1. Liu D. et al.. Hydrous manganese dioxide nanowall arrays growth and their Li+ ions intercalation electrochemical properties. Chem. Mater. 20, 1376–1380 (2008).
    1. Miller J. R. & Simon P. Electrochemical capacitors for energy management. Science 321, 651–652 (2008). - PubMed
    1. Wang H. L. Casalongue H. S. Liang Y. Y. & Dai H. J. Ni(OH)2 Nanoplates grown on graphene as advanced electrochemical pseudocapacitor materials. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 7472–7477 (2010). - PubMed
    1. Ramesh T. N. Jayashree R. S. Kamath P. V. Rodrigues S. & Shukla A. K. Effect of lightweight supports on specific discharge capacity of nickel hydroxide. J. Power Sources 104, 295–298 (2002).

Publication types