Carbon and graphite coating on Cu(OH)2 nanowires as high-performance supercapacitor electrode

Copper hydroxide nanowires (CHNWs) prepared by chemical etching process, were covered by graphite and carbon coating, to form hybrid supercapacitor electrodes. The carbon coating deposited by coconut soot, and the graphite coating was employed using the electrophoresis deposition method with no interaction steps. The results show that the specific capacitance of CHNWs is 40.2 F/cm3, which has an energy and power density of 3.6 Wh/cm2 and 80.9 W/cm2, respectively. Covering the surface of CHNWs by carbon increased the capacitance of the electrode to 114.7 F/cm2 while the graphite coating enhanced the capacitance to 96.7 F/cm2. According to the FE-SEM observations, carbon uniformly covered the nanowires surface and a higher capacity is achieved in this sample. This sample showed energy density and power density of 10.2 Wh/cm2 and 162.9 W/cm2, respectively.