Surfactant-assisted facile synthesis of petal-nanoparticle interconnected nanoflower like NiO nanostructure for supercapacitor electrodes material

Nickel oxide (NiO) nanostructures with diverse morphology were prepared by facile sol-gel route using cationic, anionic, and non-ionic surfactants as stabilizing agents. The effects of surfactants on the physical and morpho-logical properties of NiO were investigated. In addition, the electrochemical properties of grown products were also studied. We have observed that cationic surfactant (CTAB) leads to petal-nanoparticle interconnected nanoflower-like morphology. The electrochemical study revealed that all electrodes have pseudocapacitive nature with Faradic charge-storage mechanism. The CTAB assisted electrode owns large specific capacitance/energy density/power density of 397F/g/27.57 Wh/kg/0.54 KW/kg at 1 A/g current density in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte with superior cycling stability. The formation of nanoflower-like morphology in CTAB assisted electrode provides a larger surface area for ions transportation, higher conductivity, fast charge transfer, higher current density, and high electrochemical active surface area, attributing to boosted supercapacitive behavior of synthesized electrodes.