Morphology dependant electrochemical performance of hydrothermally synthesized NiCo2O4 nanomorphs

Abstract The spinel nanostructured nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) with different morphologies has been successfully synthesized via facile surfactant assisted hydrothermal route. Tri-ethanolamine ethoxylate (TEA-ethoxylate) and PEG-600 were used as surfactants. The synthesized samples were characterized using various physicochemical techniques and were further used for fabrication of electrode for supercapacitor application. The effect of reaction temperature and surfactant on typical morphology of product and their electrochemical properties has been explored. The morphological features of as-synthesized samples were studied by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The surface area, pore volume and pore diameter were estimated by BET-BJH surface area analysis. The dandelion-like morphology of nickel cobaltite showed the highest surface area (58.76 m2 g−1) with uniform porosity. This morphology provides numerous electrochemical active sites for high electrochemical performance and resulted into the high specific capacitance (479 Fg−1 at scan rate 5 mVs−1) with high energy density (21.3 Whkg−1) and power density (150 Wkg−1).