Synthesis of Pristine Cobalt oxide (Co3O4) Nanostructured Electrode Material for Supercapacitor Applications

Pristine Co3O4 nanostructured material has been successfully synthesized through new method adopted in hydrothermal technique. The obtained Co3O4 material displays the cubic phase spinel structure and nanodisc hexagonal like morphology as confirmed by the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical properties of the modified Co3O4 electrode material have been analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), charge-discharge curve (CP) using three electrode system. The modified electrode material Co3O4 shows higher specific capacitance of about 824 F/g at a 0.5 A/g current density in 3M KOH electrolyte solution. The high capacitance performance of Co3O4 material is attributed to the highly crystalline and hexagonal like morphology. The modified Co3O4 electrode reveals the pseudocapacitance behavior, which is attributed to the redox contribution of Co(OH)/CoOOH (or) Co(II) ↔ Co(III) ↔ Co(IV) in alkaline medium that makes these material active for potential charge storage (pseduocapacitor) applications.