Cu<sub>x</sub>O-Modified Nanoporous Cu Foil as a Self-Supporting Electrode for Supercapacitor and Oxygen Evolution Reaction

oleh: Zhenhan Li, Jianbin Lin, Xin He, Yue Xin, Ping Liang, Chi Zhang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-06-01

Deskripsi

Designing and modifying nanoporous metal foils to make them suitable for supercapacitor and catalysis is significant but challenging. In this work, Cu<sub>x</sub>O nanoflakes have been successfully in situ grown on nanoporous Cu foil via a facile electrooxidation method. A Ga-assisted surface Ga-Cu alloying–dealloying is adopted to realize the formation of a nanoporous Cu layer on the flexible Cu foil. The following electrooxidation, at a constant potential, modifies the nanoporous Cu layer with Cu<sub>x</sub>O nanoflakes. The optimum Cu<sub>x</sub>O/Cu electrode (O-Cu-2h) delivers the maximum areal capacitance of 0.745 F cm<sup>−2</sup> (410.27 F g<sup>−1</sup>) at 0.2 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> and maintains 94.71% of the capacitance after 12,000 cycles. The supercapacitor consisted of the O-Cu-2h as the positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode has an energy density of 24.20 Wh kg<sup>−1</sup> and power density of 0.65 kW kg<sup>−1</sup>. The potential of using the electrode as oxygen evolution reaction catalysts is also investigated. The overpotential of O-Cu-2h at 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> is 394 mV; however, the long-term stability still needs further improvement.