Gold coated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes as electrode for electrochemical capacitors

In this work, gold (Au) films were deposited onto vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by Dc magnetron sputtering method for use as super-capacitor electrodes. By so doing, we synthesize a porous Au deposit anchored on the CNTs with a high apparent surface area. The structure and microstructure studies revealed that the Au@CNTs have a porous nanostructure morphology. The porous Au/CNTs electrodes exhibit an a good areal capacitance compared to state of art Au based electrode (25.6 mF cm-2 at 5 mV.s-1) and excellent cycling stability (90% retention after 10.000 cycles) in 0.5 M H2SO4 aqueous solution. These results demonstrate the beneficial use of CNTs to fabricate a porous Au deposit with improved electrochemical energy storage. In addition, these porous structures can also be used as templates for another type of materials for electrochemical energy storage.