Sustainable Cauliflower-Patterned CuFe2O4 Electrode Production from Chalcopyrite for Supercapacitor Applications

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to produce an ore-based high-capacity supercapacitor electrode. For this, chalcopyrite ore was first leached with nitric acid, and then metal oxide synthesis was carried out immediately on nickel foam using a hydrothermal technique from the solution. Cauliflower-patterned CuFe2O4 with a wall thickness of about 23 nm was synthesized on the Ni foam surface, characterized by XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM, and TEM investigations. The produced electrode also displayed a feature of a battery-like charge storage mechanism with a specific capacity of 525 mF cm−2 at 2 mA cm−2 current density, energy of 8.9 mWh cm−2, and a power density of 233 mW cm−2. Additionally, even after 1350 cycles, this electrode still performed at 109% of its original capacity. The performance of this finding is 255% higher than that of the CuFe2O4 in our earlier investigation; despite being pure, it performs far better than some of its equivalents in the literature. Obtaining such performance from an electrode made from ore indicates that the use of ore has a lot of potential for supercapacitor production and property improvement.

Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanorods from Zinc Borate Precursor and Characterization of Supercapacitor Properties

“…The non-linearity of this decrease is likely due to this phenomenon. Similar situations were observed in our previous studies as well [30,34,35]. At the same time, these results were obtained from the ZnO-modified Ni foam electrode.…”

“…The intensity of the peaks is affected by the variables such as scan rate and ion adhesion to the electrode surface. Previous studies have shown that increasing scan rate results in higher peak intensities in a linear relationship [30,31,34]. This trend is confirmed by the slope values of 0.99544 in the anodic region and 0.9996 in the cathodic region, as depicted in the Randel-Sevcik plot shown in Figure 5c.…”

“…It can be interpreted as an increased wetting of the active material by ions with longer charge-discharge durations. Indeed, this situation has been encountered in numerous previous studies [30,31]. The retention value remained above 100% until the cycle numbers reached 100, 150, 200, and 250.…”

“…The primary objective of this method was to create compounds by transforming dissolved Zn metal and precipitating ions (urea) in pure water under high pressure and low-temperature conditions, leading to the crystalline deposition of ZnO on a substrate surface [28,29]. The waiting time, temperature, and solution concentrations that influence crystal formation were determined based on our previous work and information from the literature [30,31]. The mechanistic formation of ZnO crystals likely occurred following Equations (1)-(4), as described below [32,33].…”

Mesoporous and microporous carbons from one-pot hydrothermal products for supercapacitor electrodes: effects of porous structures and surface functionality

“…Supercapacitors (SCs) recognized as a promising sustainable energy storage device have attracted widespread attention, owing to their fast charge-discharge, high power, excellent long-term cycling life, etc. [1][2][3][4][5] Although the theoretical and experimental specific capacitances at relatively low sweep rates of activated carbons (ACs) are lower than those of metal oxides [6][7][8] and conductive polymers, 9,10 the electrochemical performances of the ACs at high charge-discharge rates are competitive. 11 Moreover, compared with metal oxides and conductive polymers, the superior conductivity, outstanding electrochemical stability, eco-friendliness and low cost also make ACs the most widely-used electrode materials of the commercial-level SCs.…”