Preparation of petal-particle cross-linking flowerlike NiO for supercapacitor application

In this work, flowerlike NiO is successfully prepared via a facile homogeneous precipitation method using different surfactants as templates in water/ethanol solution. And the flowerlike NiO using sodium dodecyl sulfate as surfactant possesses larger specific surface area (188.3 m(2)/g) and better electrochemical performance. The electrochemical property of NiO is further optimized through changing the ratios of water and ethanol and the material delivers high specific capacitance (631.7 F/g at 1 A/g) and excellent durability (82.8% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 10 A/g) when the ratio of water/ethanol is 3:1. The characterizations confirm that the outstanding performance of this material derives from the petal-particle cross-linking flowerlike structure of NiO. The possible formation mechanism is proposed. This work provides a novel method for preparing NiO electrode material with high performance supercapacitor.