Uniformly Embedded Metal Oxide Nanoparticles in Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Forests as Pseudocapacitor Electrodes for Enhanced Energy Storage

Yingqi Jiang *†, Pengbo Wang †‡, Xining Zang †,Yang Yang †§, Alina Kozinda †, and Liwei Lin †

^† Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States

^‡ Robotics and Microsystems Center, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, China

^§ Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China

Nano Lett., 2013, 13 (8), pp 3524–3530

DOI: 10.1021/nl400921p

Publication Date (Web): July 30, 2013

Abstract: 

Carbon nanotube (CNT) forests were grown directly on a silicon substrate using a Fe/Al/Mo stacking layer which functioned as both the catalyst material and subsequently a conductive current collecting layer in pseudocapacitor applications. A vacuum-assisted, in situ electrodeposition process has been used to achieve the three-dimensional functionalization of CNT forests with inserted nickel nanoparticles as pseudocapacitor electrodes. Experimental results have shown the measured specific capacitance of 1.26 F/cm³, which is 5.7 times higher than pure CNT forest samples, and the oxidized nickel nanoparticle/CNT supercapacitor retained 94.2% of its initial capacitance after 10 000 cyclic voltammetry tests.

Keywords: 

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube; nanoparticle; electrodeposition; metal oxide; pseudocapacitor; energy storage