Comparative Study of Carbon Black and Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes as Conductive Additives on Electrochemical Performance of Branched CuO Nanostructures

摘要

In this work, comparative study of carbon blacks (CB) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs)as conductive additives, were examined to enhance electrochemical performance of dandelion-likehollow CuO (H-CuO) and flower-like CuO (F-CuO) as nanostructured electrode materials forsupercapacitors. The structure and morphology of as-synthesized CuO were characterized by nitrogenadsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and focus ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB/SEM).Furthermore, the electrochemical properties of CuO mixed with CB and MWNTs were elucidated bygalvanostatic charge/discharge and cyclic voltammetric measurements. The electrochemical resultsdemonstrated that both of branched CuO nanostructures mixed with MWNTs exhibited higher specificcapacitance and stable cycling performance. Interestingly, MWNTs kept CuO from peeling during thecharge/discharge process, while branched CuO nanostructures prevented MWNTs from agglomeration,thus facilitating ion transport in the electrode material. In principles, our findings could be effective forthe choice of conductive additives depending on CuO morphologies (e.g., branched structures) toimprove the electrochemical performance.