Morphology-Controlled CuCo₂O₄ Nanomaterials for High-Performance Supercapacitor Electrode

Abstract

Designed electrode materials within controllable morphology are significant for the improvement of supercapacitor performance. This paper introduces CuCo 2 O 4 nanomaterials with four distinct morphologies of needle, block, rod, and tube, prepared via a one-step hydrothermal process within annealing on nickel foam (NF). The ammonium halides in this synthesis were thoroughly investigated. As a three-electrode system, CuCo 2 O 4 shows a high performance (942 F g –1 @1 A g –1 ) and holds 87.5% of its initial capacitance (following 10k charge/discharge cycles at 20 A g –1 ), indicating its potential for the applied supercapacitor. Based on these results, the CuCo 2 O 4 block material and activated carbon (AC) are used as the positive/negative electrode for the fabricated asymmetric supercapacitor. This device achieves a superior performance (46.65 Wh kg –1 @800 W kg –1 ) and shows an excellent cycle stability (10k cycles) of 89.2%. This is due to its extensive specific surface and porous structure, which help facilitate ion diffusion and reversible redox reactions through abundant channels and active sites created. This paper provides insights into the controlled preparation of electrode materials with specific morphologies.