title: Functional porous carbon/nickel oxide nanocomposites as binder-free electrodes for supercapacitors.
abstract: High-surface-area, guava-leaf-derived, heteroatom-containing activated carbon (GHAC) materials were synthesized by means of a facile chemical activation method with KOH as activating agent and exploited as catalyst supports to disperse nickel oxide (NiO) nanocrystals (average size (2.0±0.1) nm) through a hydrothermal process. The textural and structural properties of these GHAC/NiO nanocomposites were characterized by various physicochemical techniques, namely, field-emission SEM, high-resolution TEM, elemental analysis, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Raman spectroscopy. The as-synthesized GHAC/NiO nanocomposites were employed as binder-free electrodes, which exhibited high specific capacitance (up to 461 F g(-1) at a current density of 2.3 A g(-1)) and remarkable cycling stability, which may be attributed to the unique properties of GHAC and excellent electrochemical activity of the highly dispersed NiO nanocrystals.
authors.affiliation: Electroanalysis and Bioelectrochemistry Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10617 (Taiwan), Fax: (+886) 2-27025238.
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Madhu
authors.affiliation: Electroanalysis and Bioelectrochemistry Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10617 (Taiwan), Fax: (+886) 2-27025238.
authors.forename: Vediyappan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Veeramani
authors.affiliation: Electroanalysis and Bioelectrochemistry Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10617 (Taiwan), Fax: (+886) 2-27025238. smchen78@ms15.hinet.net.
authors.forename: Shen-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 10617 (Taiwan), Fax: (+886) 2-23620200.
authors.forename: Pitchaimani
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veerakumar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 10617 (Taiwan), Fax: (+886) 2-23620200. sbliu@sinica.edu.tw.|Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 11677 (Taiwan). sbliu@sinica.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Shang-Bin
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: biomass; carbon; electrochemistry; nanostructures; nickel