Structural and electrochemical investigation on pure and aluminium doped nickel ferrite nanoparticles for supercapacitor application

Pure and aluminium doped nickel ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal method. The structural and the electrochemical properties of the prepared ferrite samples were studied using the X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), FT-IR and Cyclic voltammetry (CV) study analysis. XRD analysis confirmed the cubic spinel structure. The aluminium dopant decreased the grain size of the ferrite nanoparticles. SEM analysis indicated the non-uniform cluster formation of the particles. IR metal oxygen vibration at the tetrahedral and the octahedral sites revealed the presence of spinel ferrite. Cyclic Voltammetry study revealed that the specific capacitance of the dopant sample increased to 250.9F/g at the scan rate of 10 mV/s in 2 M of KOH electrolyte solution. It was also observed that, there was an appreciable increase in the specific capacitance due to aluminium substitution. The aluminium dopant in nickel spinel ferrite had greatly influenced the structural and electrochemical properties of the obtained products. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.