PPy coated nanoflower like CuCo2O4 based on in situ growth of nanoporous copper for high-performance supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

Abstract General CuCo2O4 electrodes suffer a very low reversible capacity and poor cycling stability because of easily fading phenomena and volume change during cycling. To optimize the electrode, a facile method is conducted to fabricate a novel electrode of Cu@CuCo2O4@polypyrrole nanoflowers. Due to larger specific surface area and more electrochemical reactive areas of CuCo2O4@polypyrrole nanoflowers, the pseudocapacitance of the in situ grown CuCo2O4@polypyrrole (912 F g−1 at 2 A g−1) is much higher than the pristine CuCo2O4 (618 F g−1 at 2 A g−1). Remarkably, the CuCo2O4@polypyrrole (cathode) and active carbon (anode) are used to assemble an asymmetric supercapacitor, which exhibits a relatively high energy density of 90 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 2519 W kg−1 and 35 Wh kg−1 at a high-power density of 9109 W kg−1, and excellent cycling stability (about 90.4% capacitance retention over 10 000 cycles). The prominent performance of CuCo2O4@polypyrrole makes it as a potential electrode for supercapacitor.