Contribution of Ultrahigh Electrochemical Performance of NiCo2O4 Nanoneedle-Based Free-Standing Electrode from Functionalized Carbon Cloth

Spinel structure NiCo 2 O 4 suffers from poor electric conductivity and the resulted electrochemical properties in battery/supercapacitor system are still unsatisfied. In this paper, a free-standing electrode based on in-situ growth NiCo 2 O 4 on carbon cloth has been synthesized by a surfactant-assisted solvothermal method (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS). The functional carbon cloth substrate makes unexpected contribution to the electrochemical lithium-ion storage. The assembled supercapacitor possesses ultrahigh pseudocapacitive properties with high mass loading. The specific capacitance of 2832 $$ F $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ has been obtained at 1 $$ A $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ current density with maintaining the high rate capability of 1620 $$ F $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ at 20 $$ A $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ . The obtained nanoneedle NiCo 2 O 4 /carbon cloth electrode also maintains a specific capacity of 2000 $$ mA $$ h $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ at 40 $$ mA $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ and exceptional rate performance (1504 $$ mAh $$ g − 1 ${}^{-1}$ at 400 $$ mA $$ g − 1 ) ${}^{-1})$ when tested as anode material in lithium ion batteries.