Capacitive performances of amorphous tungsten oxide prepared by microwave irradiation

Tungsten oxide was synthesized by microwave irradiation and used for the first time as the electrode material of supercapacitor. As evidenced by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge cycling tests, the microwave irradiation-derived tungsten oxide (WO3-M) shows superior capacitive performances to thermal heating-derived tungsten oxide. This can be attributed to the amorphous structure of WO3-M. WO3-M possesses good cycling performance and high volumetric capacitances, which highlights its potential application as an electrode material in a supercapacitor. (C) 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.