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

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

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-like hollow CuO (H-CuO) and flower-like CuO (F-CuO) as nanostructured electrode materials for supercapacitors. The structure and morphology of as-synthesized CuO were characterized by nitrogen adsorption, 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 by galvanostatic charge/discharge and cyclic voltammetric measurements. The electrochemical results demonstrated that both of branched CuO nanostructures mixed with MWNTs exhibited higher specific capacitance and stable cycling performance. Interestingly, MWNTs kept CuO from peeling during the charge/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 for the choice of conductive additives depending on CuO morphologies (e.g., branched structures) to improve the electrochemical performance.