Template agent for assisting in the synthesis of ZnCo2O4 on Ni foam for high-performance supercapacitors

Zinc cobalt oxide (ZnCo2O4) is successfully achieved by a simple hydrothermal process and adjusting the annealing temperature, utilizing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as template agents. The prepared ZnCo2O4 exhibits a different morphological structure by adding a templating agent, which exhibits high capacitance and cycle stability. Specially, the ZnCo2O4 electrode using 1 g of PVP exhibited a superior performance with a high specific capacity of 1527.2 F g(-1) at a current density of 1 A g(-1) and 1204 F g(-1) at 10 A g(-1). In addition, P-ZCO was used as the positive electrode, and activated carbon (AC) was used as the negative electrode to assemble an asymmetric supercapacitor device. It has an energy density of 69.2 Wh kg(-1) at a power density of 774.6 W kg(-1), and a retention rate of 77% at a current density of 10 A g(-1), which exhibits excellent performance.