Controlled Electrochemical Synthesis of Nickel Hydroxide Nanosheets Grown on Non-woven Cu/PET Fibers: A Robust, Flexible, and Binder-Free Electrode for High-Performance Pseudocapacitors

Using a simple electrochemical deposition (ECD) method, β-nickel hydroxide (β-Ni­(OH)2) nanosheets (NSs) are facilely integrated on non-woven conductive textile substrate (NWCTs). The NWCTs with copper-plated polyethylenterephthalate (Cu/PET) fibers serves as a highly conductive and low-cost working substrate for the ECD method. With an aid of direct current voltage in the growth solution, the β-Ni­(OH)2 NSs well adhere to NWCTs fibers with good uniformity. The surface morphology and crystallinity properties of the synthesized β-Ni­(OH)2 NSs on NWCTs are characterized by various physicochemical techniques. Furthermore, the hierarchical β-Ni­(OH)2 NSs on NWCTs reveal superior energy storage performance in 1 M KOH electrolyte solution as a binder-free electrode for pseudocapacitors. Compared to the conventional conductive foil-based electrode, the pseudocapacitive electrode in this work exhibit a relatively high electrochemical performance (specific capacitance of 2185.6 F g–1 at 5 A g–1) and stable capacitance retention (95%) after long-term cycling process, which is attributed to the hierarchical nanonetwork of β-Ni­(OH)2 NSs and three-dimensional fibrous configuration of NWCTs electrode. This cost-effective growth of metal hydroxide/oxide nanostructures on flexible textiles may be useful for advanced energy storage device applications.