Electrochemical performance of nickel oxide/KOH/active carbon super-capacitor

The fabrication and characterization of new type Nickel oxide/KOH/Active carbon super-capacitor have been described. Porous nickeloxide was prepared by hydrolysis of nickel acetate and heated in air at 300℃. The resulting nickel oxide behaved as an electrochemical capacitor electrode with a specific capacitance (50-70F/g) superior to most active carbon electrodes. This kind of nickel oxide maintained highutilization at high rate of discharge (i.e., high power density) and had excellent cycle life more than 1000 times, while the capacitance of the cell composed of two identical nickel oxide electrodes was poor at high discharge current density and the maximum operational voltage of this type capacitor was limited to 0.5V. A new type super-capacitorwas designed in which the nickel oxide and the active carbon were applied to the positive and negative electrodes respectively. The breakdown voltage of this type super-capacitor was improved effectively to 0.8V and excellent characteristic of high power discharge was attained in this way. The Nickel oxide/KOH/Active carbon super-capacitor has promising potentials in portable telecommunications, uninterruptable power supplies and battery load leveling applications.