Binder-Free Nickel Oxide Lamellar Layer Anchored CoOx Nanoparticles on Nickel Foam for Supercapacitor Electrodes

To enhance the connection of electroactive materials/current collector and accelerate the transport efficiency of the electrons, a binder-free electrode composed of nickel oxide anchored CoOx nanoparticles on modified commercial nickel foam (NF) was developed. The nickel oxide layer with lamellar structure which supplied skeleton to load CoOx electroactive materials directly grew on the NF surface, leading to a tight connection between the current collector and electroactive materials. The fabricated electrode exhibits a specific capacitance of 475 F/g at 1 mA/cm2. A high capacitance retention of 96% after 3000 cycles is achieved, attributed to the binding improvement at the current collector/electroactive materials interface. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor with an operating voltage window of 1.4 V was assembled using oxidized NF anchored with cobalt oxide as the cathode and activated stainless steel wire mesh as the anode. The device achieves a maximum energy density of 2.43 Wh/kg and power density of 0.18 kW/kg, respectively. The modified NF substrate conducted by a facile and effective electrolysis process, which also could be applied to deposit other electroactive materials for the energy storage devices.