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Synthesis of three-dimensional multifunctional Co3O4 nanostructures for electrochemical supercapacitors and H2 production

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Abstract

Co3O4 nanomaterials are grown in situ on nickel foam by a facile two-step method, and their electrochemical properties for supercapacitors and electrochemical H2 production are systematically investigated. As an electrode material for supercapacitors, the Co3O4/NF nanomaterials have a specific capacitance of 4705 mF/cm2 at a current density of 2.5 mA/cm2 in 6 M KOH solution with good cycling stability. The asymmetric supercapacitor assembled with Co3O4/NF (positive) and activated carbon (negative) exhibits high energy storage capacity (2023 mF/cm2 at 5 mA/cm2), good rate performance and cycling stability. In addition, the Co3O4/NF nanocomposites exhibit excellent catalytic performance in electrolytic aquatic hydrogen. In 1 M KOH electrolyte, a potential of only 225 mV is required to provide a current density of 30 mA/cm2. Furthermore, increasing the temperature enhances the catalytic performance of the material, which provides the possibility of using industrial production waste heat to catalyze hydrogen production. Therefore, this study not only shows the great potential of Co3O4/NF nanocomposites as a supercapacitor cathode material, but also indicates its great opportunity for hydrogen production.

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The data that support the findings of this study are freely available from the corresponding author for non-commercial purpose, without breaching participant confidentiality.

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Acknowledgements

The work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hu’nan Province (Grant No. 2021JJ30708), Foundation of Hu’nan Educational Committee (Grant No. 18A149), Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation project of Hu’nan Province (CX20200903), the International Collaboration Program, CSUST (No. 2018IC28), the Creative Program from College of Materials Science and Engineering, CSUST, and the project from Yuelu Mountain National University, Science and Technology Town.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410114, Hunan, China

    Shidong Li, Jincheng Fan, Guocai Xiao, Shanqiang Gao, Kexin Cui, Chaoqun Niu, Wenbin Luo, Hongguang Jin & Zisheng Chao

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Contributions

SL: Designing experiments, Analysis of data, Writing-editing; JF: Conceptualization, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing; GX: Analysis of data, Discussion; SG: Formal analysis, Discussion; KC: Experiments, Formal analysis and Discussion; CN: Experiments, Formal analysis and Discussion; WL: Review & Editing, Formal analysis and Discussion; HJ: Review & Editing, Formal analysis and Discussion; ZC: Conceptualization, Writing—Review & Editing. All authors have given approval to the version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jincheng Fan or Zisheng Chao.

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Li, S., Fan, J., Xiao, G. et al. Synthesis of three-dimensional multifunctional Co3O4 nanostructures for electrochemical supercapacitors and H2 production. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 10207–10225 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08010-5

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