Mesoporous Nickel/Nickel Oxidea Nanoarchitectured Electrode

Abstract

Metallic nickel was electrodeposited from aqueous nickel(II) acetate dissolved in the lyotropic liquid crystalline phases of Brij 56 and Brij 78 surfactant templates to form metal films with hexagonal arrays of nanometer-sized channels. The applicability of these materials as inexpensive, large area and low-resistance current collectors was demonstrated by cyclic voltammetry. The redox charge capacity of the surface oxide in aqueous KOH was enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude over that of a nontemplated sample with no detectable impedance of the reaction rate.