Nickel oxalate nanostructures for supercapacitors

Herein, we describe a facile method to produce nickel oxalate nanostructures by chemical reaction of oxalic acid and a nickel foil in various organic solvents and water. Grass-like structures consisting of nickel oxalate are produced by the chemical reaction within 30 min for all solvents. Interestingly, nickel oxalate nanowires can be produced by the addition of a small amount of water in certain solvents. Annealing of nickel oxalate structures leads to formation of nickel oxide structures with a slight morphological change. Compositions of the nanostructures are investigated by TEM and FT-IR analyses. In addition, the supercapacitance of the nickel oxalate nanostructures is characterized, and the results show that they are superior to that of nickel oxide nanostructures.