Substrate-assisted self-organization of Ni–Cu spherical double hydroxide (SDH) and its excellent pseudo-capacitive performance

Abstract

Ni–Cu spherical double hydroxide (SDH) was synthesized by a one-step, seedless and cost-effective chemical bath deposition method. It showed novel spherical morphology and an interesting composition, containing copper and nickel from elemental mapping. For comparison, when the substrates changed from a copper foam to a nickel foam or carbon paper, the deposited material became pure nickel hydroxide with a flower-like morphology. The SDH demonstrated a high specific capacitance of 1970 F g⁻¹ after removing the contribution of the substrate (total 2282 F g⁻¹).