Hydrogen evolution involved electrodeposition of Cu-Ni alloys and dealloying for supercapacitor application

Abstract

Previous research shows that porous nickels with closely packed tiny pores can be neither fabricated by the method of electrochemical deposition nor the method of hydrogen bubble dynamic template. Therefore, a combined method of electrodeposition and hydrogen evolution reaction is proposed and which will be the main focus of this study. This project is divided into three parts. The first part is the fabrication of porous nickel by the combined method in different conditions. Second part is the fabrication of porous nickel with nickel hydroxide by undergoing hydrothermal treatment. For the last part, samples were characterized by SEM, XRD, CV and charge and discharge tests. The results indicate that using this combined method can also fabricate porous nickels which have high surface area. Also, because the nickel oxide is already formed in electrodeposition stage, this method is convenient for making supercapacitors by just using one step. Last but not least, porous nickel fabricated by this method has high specific capacitance and high retention. Therefore, this method is potentially to be applied to large-scale fabrication of supercapacitors to be used in industry.