Recent advancements of copper oxide based nanomaterials for supercapacitor applications

摘要

Copper oxides (CuO and Cu2O) have been established as technologically important materials due to their unique advantages of low cost, high chemical stability and remarkable electrochemical performance, particularly, in the fields of catalysis, photovoltaics and energy storage applications. Specifically, promising capacitance availability, noticeable electrochemical response and facile fabrication of copper oxides have driven enormous attention for high energy supercapacitors to meet the high rising demands for efficient electrochemical energy storage systems. This review summarizes the recent advancements of various copper oxide based nanosystems employed to design better electrode materials for advanced supercapacitors. Special emphasis has been given on correlating their capacitive behavior with varying morphology obtained via different synthetic procedures. Electrochemical responses of varied copper oxides nanostructures have been comprehensively discussed. To overcome the issue of high rates of agglomeration, low conductivity and poor electrochemical stability of pristine copper oxides nanomaterials, they have been successfully combined with suitable pseudocapacitive materials like metal oxides, chalcogenides, etc., as well as several carbon-based systems such as conducting polymers, carbon nanotubes and functionalized graphene systems, etc. to fabricate binary/ternary/quaternary nanocomposites with superior features for advanced energy storage applications, have also been outlined. In the course, merits/ demerits of these assorted nanocomposites have been highlighted to delineate clearly the current challenges faced that may promote better strategic designing of smarter nanomaterials for high performance supercapacitor electrodes in the near future.