Experimental study on the synthesis of Co(OH)2/ZnO nanorods on nickel foam & its supercapacitor perormance

• Main Author: Syed Bashiir Syed Abdul Kadir
• Other Authors: Xu Zhichuan Jason
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/64682
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The past few decades have seen an increase in energy consumption around the world. Thus, there is a need for more efficient energy storage devices. Supercapacitor has shown great potential and promises as the upcoming energy storage devices, exhibiting high power densities. The crux of the performance of supercapacitor lies in its electrode materials. Intense research efforts have been carried out, in the investigation for more efficient materials for supercapacitor applications. The focus in recent times has been towards metal oxides such as RuO2, Co(OH)2 and MgO which exhibit high conductivity, high specific capacitance and long cycling stability. Combinations of more than one metal oxides and exploitation of the structure and morphology at nano-scale level have been explored in synthesizing more efficient electrode for supercapacitor. This project aims to (1) investigate the synthesis of Co(OH)2 supported by ZnO nanorods on nickel foam by method of potentiostatic electrodeposition and also (2) to characterize the electrochemical performance of the synthesized electrode. Co(OH)2 is known to have very high specific capacitance due to their porous structure. In this study, we attempt to further enhance its capacitance performance by optimizing its porosity and active surface area. Electrodeposition is chosen as the synthesis technique due to its low cost and easy-to-control parameters. Through this investigation, it is found that Co(OH)2 supported by ZnO nanorod