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Effect of electrolytes on the electrochemical performance of nickel cobaltite–titania nanotubes composites as supercapacitive materials

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Abstract

The effects of electrolytes on the electrochemical performance of nickel cobaltite–titania nanotubes composites as electrochemical capacitors were evaluated. Four types of electrolytes were selected to assess their effects on the prepared composites, namely aqueous electrolytes of 1.0 M KCl, 1.0 M HCl, 1.0 M KOH; and an organic electrolyte, 0.27 M tetra-n-butylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBATFB) ionic liquid salt in acetonitrile. The composites performed better in 1.0 M HCl and 1.0 M KOH, than in 1.0 M KCl and 0.27 M TBATFB, which suggested that aqueous electrolytes with non-neutral pH would improve the specific areal capacitance values of the composites. Results have shown optimal performance in 1.0 KOH, which endowed the composite with excellent rate capability up to 200 mV s−1. Cyclic voltammogram of the composite analysed in 1.0 M KOH produced a leaf-shaped like profile, with higher current densities towards more positive potentials. Charge–discharge analyses in 1.0 M KOH has shown that the composite possessed specific areal capacitance of up to 214.76 µF cm−2 when it was evaluated at the current density of 350 µA cm−2. The composite also retained up to 97.79% of its specific areal capacitance when current density was increased to 400 µA cm−2. This material has demonstrated potential application for electrochemical capacitors through its facile fabrication technique.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from Universiti Putra Malaysia (Grant No.: Putra Grant GPB 2017). The authors also thank Dr. Nurul Asma Samsudin for her advice on the synthesis of titania nanotubes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Chi Wing Chua, Zulkarnain Zainal, Hong Ngee Lim & Sook-Keng Chang

  2. Materials Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Zulkarnain Zainal, Hong Ngee Lim & Sook-Keng Chang

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  1. Chi Wing Chua
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Correspondence to Zulkarnain Zainal.

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Chua, C.W., Zainal, Z., Lim, H.N. et al. Effect of electrolytes on the electrochemical performance of nickel cobaltite–titania nanotubes composites as supercapacitive materials. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 14445–14454 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-9577-z

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