High-Performance 3D Nanostructured Silver Electrode for Micro-Supercapacitor Application
Ana Silvia González, Javier Garcı́a, V. Vega, Rafael Caballero Flores, V.M. Prida
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide In the current energy crisis scenario, the development of renewable energy forms such as energy storage systems among the supercapacitors is an urgent need as a tool for environmental protection against increasing pollution. In this work, we have designed a novel 3D nanostructured silver electrode through an antireplica/replica template-assisted procedure. The chemical surface and electrochemical properties of this novel 3D electrode have been studied in a 5 M KOH electrolyte. Microstructural characterization and compositional analysis were studied by SEM, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, XRD technique, and Kripton adsorption at −198 °C, together with cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge cycling measurements, Coulombic efficiency, cycle stability, and their leakage current drops, in addition to the self-discharge and electrochromoactive behavior, were performed to fully characterize the 3D nanostructured electrode. Large areal capacitance value of 0.5 F/cm 2 and Coulombic efficiency of 97.5% are obtained at a current density of 6.4 mA/cm 2 for a voltage window of 1.2 V (between −0.5 and 0.8 V). The 3D nanostructured silver electrode exhibits excellent capacitance retention (95%) during more than 2600 cycles, indicating a good cyclic stability. Additionally, the electrode delivers a high energy density of around 385.87 μWh/cm 2 and a power density value of 3.82 μW/cm 2 and also displays an electrochromoactive behavior. These experimental results strongly support that this versatile combined fabrication procedure is a suitable strategy for improving the electrochemical performances of 3D nanostructured silver electrodes for applications as micro-supercapacitors or in electrochemical devices.