Electrochemical energy
storage relies essentially on the development
of innovative electrode materials with enhanced kinetics of ion transport.
Pseudocapacitors are excellent candidates to bridge the performance
gap between supercapacitors and batteries. Highly porous, anhydrous
Ni0.5Co0.5C2O4 is envisaged
here as a potential electrode for pseudocapacitor applications, mainly
because of its open pore framework structure, which poses inherent
structural stability due to the presence of planar oxalate anions
(C2O4
2–), and active participation
of Ni2+/3+ and Co2+/3+ results in high intercalative
charge storage capacity in the aqueous KOH electrolyte. The Ni0.5Co0.5C2O4 electrode shows
specific capacitance equivalent to 2396 F/g at 1 A/g in the potential
window of 0.6 V in the aqueous 2 M KOH electrolyte by galvanostatic
charge/discharge experiments. Predominant pseudocapacitive mechanism
seems to operative behind high charge storage due to active participation
of Ni2+/3+ and Co2+/3+ redox couple as intercalative
(inner) and surface (outer) charges stored by porous anhydrous Co0.5Ni0.5C2O4 were close to
high 38 and 62% respectively. Further, in full cell asymmetric supercapacitors
(ASCs) in which porous anhydrous Co0.5Ni0.5C2O4 was used as the positive electrode and activated
carbon (AC) was utilized as the negative electrode, in the operating
potential window 1.6 V, the highest specific energy of 283 W h/kg
and specific power of ∼817 W/kg were achieved at 1 A/g current
rates. Even at a very high power density of 7981 W/kg, the hybrid
supercapacitor still attains an energy density of ∼75 W h/kg
with high cyclic stability at a 10 A/g current rate. The detailed
electrochemical studies confirm higher cyclic stability and a superior
electrochemical energy storage property of porous anhydrous Co0.5Ni0.5C2O4, making it a
potential pseudocapacitive electrode for large energy storage applications.