Fabrication of porous double-urchin-like MgCo2O4 hierarchical architectures for high-rate supercapacitors

Porous double-urchin-like MgCo2O4 hierarchical architectures have been synthesized via a facile two-step method (a hydrothermal route and followed with a calcination process). These double-urchin-like hierarchical architectures are composed of many porous nanoneedles with a diameter 5-50 nm from the tip to the root. The porous nanoneedle is composed of numerous nanoparticles with the size 5 - 20 nm. The as-prepared MgCo2O4 electrode exhibits a specific capacitance of 508 F g(-1) at 2 A g(-1). The MgCo2O4 electrode shows a remarkably long-term cycle stability, which canpreserve 95.9% of its highest capacitance after 2000 cycle times. The double-urchin-like MgCo2O4 hierarchical architectures could be considered as a potential mixed transition metal oxide material for high-rate supercapacitors in some special applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.