Abstract:
Carbon cloth (CC) coated with
β-Ni(OH)
2 nanoflakes was prepared by a hydrothermal method using nickel nitrate, urea and ammonium fluoride as the reaction system, and was characterized by SEM, XPS and XRD. Results indicated that the acid treatment of the CC introduced more active functional groups on its surface, which was beneficial to the coating of the
β-Ni(OH)
2. The
β-Ni(OH)
2 nanoflakes were of high purity, and their formation mechanism on the CC was investigated by observing their morphology at different reaction times. It was revealed that the
β-Ni(OH)
2 were initially present in the form of discrete nanoparticles and nanoflakes and after 6 h formed a continuous and well-crystallized
β-Ni(OH)
2 nanoflake with diameter and thickness of 1 μm and 10 nm, respectively. Nanoflakes continued to form, grow and overlap and after 12 h the thickness had increased to 200 nm. The sample at 6 h had the highest specific capacitance of 815.67 F·g
-1 at a current density of 1 A·g
-1, and retained 98.1% of its initial capacitance after 4 000 cycles.