Magnetic and electrochemical properties of nickel oxide microstructures prepared by hydrothermal method

Nickel oxide microstructures were succesfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. The structure, morphology, surface and porosity of the NiO hexagonal plates indicated the formation of NiO without appearing any secondary phases, occupying the typical cubic structure. The ferromagnetic behaviour was examined by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The sample exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour at room-temperature with the magnetic moment value of ~ 160 memu/g. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) anylysis were used to examine the electrochemical capacitance of the sample. The specific capacitance of the sample at a current density of 1 A/g was obtained to be 174.14 F/g. The cycle stability was excellent usability 76.6% after 500 cycles at a current density of 5 A/g.

Nanofluidic voidless electrode for electrochemical capacitance enhancement in gel electrolyte

Porous electrodes with extraordinary capacitances in liquid electrolytes are oftentimes incompetent when gel electrolyte is applied because of the escalating ion diffusion limitations brought by the difficulties of infilling the pores of electrode with gels. As a result, porous electrodes usually exhibit lower capacitance in gel electrolytes than that in liquid electrolytes. Benefiting from the swift ion transport in intrinsic hydrated nanochannels, the electrochemical capacitance of the nanofluidic voidless electrode (5.56% porosity) is nearly equal in gel and liquid electrolytes with a difference of ~1.8%. In gel electrolyte, the areal capacitance reaches 8.94 F cm−2 with a gravimetric capacitance of 178.8 F g−1 and a volumetric capacitance of 321.8 F cm−3. The findings are valuable to solid-state electrochemical energy storage technologies that require high-efficiency charge transport.