Synthesis of Pristine Cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) Nanostructured Electrode Material for Supercapacitor Applications

Pristine Co₃O₄ nanostructured material has been successfully synthesized through new method adopted in hydrothermal technique. The obtained Co₃O₄ material displays the cubic phase spinel structure and nanodisc hexagonal like morphology as confirmed by the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical properties of the modified Co₃O₄ electrode material have been analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), charge-discharge curve (CP) using three electrode system. The modified electrode material Co₃O₄ shows higher specific capacitance of about 824 F/g at a 0.5 A/g current density in 3M KOH electrolyte solution. The high capacitance performance of Co₃O₄ material is attributed to the highly crystalline and hexagonal like morphology. The modified Co₃O₄ electrode reveals the pseudocapacitance behavior, which is attributed to the redox contribution of Co(OH)/CoOOH (or) Co(II) ↔ Co(III) ↔ Co(IV) in alkaline medium that makes these material active for potential charge storage (pseduocapacitor) applications.