Facile synthesis of porous SnO2 film grown on Ni foam applied for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract Here, a novel three dimensional Ni foam-supported porous SnO 2 film (SnO 2 /Ni composite foam) was successfully synthesized by the simple hydrothermal method. The porous SnO 2 film had closely coated on the backbones of Ni foam without assistant of surfactant at mild conditions. At the same time, the pore size of SnO 2 /Ni composite foam was easily controlled by the reaction temperature. Furthermore, it was found that the capacitive properties of SnO 2 /Ni composite foam were related to the pore size of SnO 2 film. The SnO 2 film with smaller pore size showed higher capacitive properties, in which the porous SnO 2 /Ni composite foam with pore size of ca.60.0 nm showed high rate capability of 541.0 F g −1 at 10.0 A g −1 and good cycle stability with capacitance retention of 98.1% after 1000 cycles. The high capacitive properties was due to the SnO 2 active materials grown on the backbone of Ni foam and porous structure of SnO 2 materials, resulting in the reduce of resistance and enhancement of active surface area. Our work not only demonstrates the controlled synthesis of high-quality porous SnO 2 /Ni composite foam at mild conditions on a large scale, but also provides a universal route for the rational design of supercapacitors with high performance.