This work presents the first demonstration of atomic layer deposition (ALD) ruthenium oxide (RuO2) and its conformal coating onto vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests as supercapacitor electrodes. Specific accomplishments include: (1) successful demonstration of ALD RuO2 deposition, (2) uniform coating of RuO2 on a vertically aligned CNT forest, and (3) an ultra-high specific capacitance of 100 mF/cm2 from prototype electrodes with a scan rate of 100 mV/s. Advantages of the ALD method include precise control of the RuO2 layer thickness and composition without the use of CNT-binder molecules. In addition to high capacitance, preliminary results indicate that the ALD RuO2-CNTs have good stability over repeated cycling. Besides its use in supercapacitors, ALD-RuO2 has potential NEMS applications: in biosensors and pH sensing [1], as a strong oxidative material in multiple chemical processes [2], and in catalytic reactions for photocatalytic systems [3].
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