PEDOT/ZnO@Nickel foam as flexible electrode material for high-performance supercapacitor

Nickel foam (NF) has high porosity, excellent conductivity and good flexibility, making it one of the ideal electrode materials. However, the large number of pores in the NF skeleton cannot be effectively utilized, thus limiting its specific capacitance as a self-supporting electrode material. Herein, a PEDOT/ZnO composite electrode material was prepared on Nickel foam by a two-step electrodeposition method. The electrodeposited ZnO nanoparticles are uniformly and densely coated on the pores of the NF, providing more active sites for electrochemical reactions. Owing to its high conductivity, reversible electrochemical redox behaviour and excellent cyclic stability, the electroactive PEDOT demonstrates an impressive pseudocapacitance property. As expected, the PEDOT/ZnO@NF composite electrode material exhibits a good mass specific capacitance of 139.28 F center dot g-1 at a current density of 1 A center dot g-1, and excellent cycling stability with no obvious decay after 100 cycles. In addition, the energy density and power density of the PEDOT/ZnO@NF composite electrode material are 37.9 Wh center dot Kg-1 and 699.5 W center dot Kg-1, respectively. This work demonstrates that the as-synthesized PEDOT/ZnO@NF could be a candidate for a flexible electrode material with high-performance supercapacitor applications.