Study of solvent variation on controlled synthesis of different nanostructured NiCo2O4 thin films for supercapacitive application

Sarika B Dhavale; Vithoba L Patil; Sonali A Beknalkar; Aviraj M Teli; Aravind H Patil; Akhilesh P Patil; Jae Cheol Shin; Pramod S Patil

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.057

Study of solvent variation on controlled synthesis of different nanostructured NiCo₂O₄ thin films for supercapacitive application

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Apr 15:588:589-601. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.057. Epub 2020 Dec 19.

Authors

Sarika B Dhavale¹, Vithoba L Patil¹, Sonali A Beknalkar¹, Aviraj M Teli², Aravind H Patil¹, Akhilesh P Patil³, Jae Cheol Shin⁴, Pramod S Patil⁵

Affiliations

¹ Thin Film Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Shivaji University Kolhapur, Maharashtra 416004, India.
² Department of Physics, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, South Korea.
³ School of Nanoscience and Technology, Shivaji University Kolhapur, Maharashtra 416004, India.
⁴ Department of Physics, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, South Korea. Electronic address: jchshin@gmail.com.
⁵ Thin Film Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Shivaji University Kolhapur, Maharashtra 416004, India. Electronic address: psp_phy@unishivaji.ac.in.

PMID: 33482585
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.057

Abstract

The present investigation deals with controlled synthesis of nanostructured NiCo₂O₄ thin films directly on stainless steel substrates by facile and economical chemical bath deposition technique, without adding a surfactant or a binder. The consequences of different compositions of solvents on morphological and electrochemical properties have been studied systematically. We used different solvent composition as Double Distilled Water (DDW), DDW:Ethanol (1:1) and DDW: N, N dimethylformamide (1:1). The films have been named as NCO-W for DDW, NCO-WE for DDW: Ethanol (1:1) solvent and NCO-WD for DDW: N, N dimethylformamide (1:1) solvent. The morphologies of NiCo₂O₄ thin films modify substantially with change in a solvent. NCO-W exhibited the spikes of Crossandra infundibuliformis like nanostructures. The NCO-WE favored the formation of uniformly distributed leaf-like nanostructure whereas NCO-WD showed randomly oriented nanoplates all over the surface area. The Electrochemical performance of these NiCo₂O₄ thin films were studied using cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The NCO-W, NCO-WE and NCO-WD electrodes showed specific capacitance values of 271, 553 and 140 F/g respectively at the current density of 0.5 mA/cm² and excellent capacitance retention of 90%, 91% and 80% after 2000 cycles for NCO-W, NCO-WE and NCO-WD samples respectively. This result reveals that NiCo₂O₄ is a prominent electrode material for supercapacitor application.

Keywords: Chemical route: Supercapacitor; NiCo(2)O(4); Solvent; Thin Film.