Facile fabrication of CuxO composite nanoarray on nanoporous copper as supercapacitor electrode

Micro-nano structure of Cu2O/CuO composite array and CuO nanowire array on nanoporous Cu are successfully synthesized via anodic oxidation method. Nanoporous Cu with bicontinuous network was fabricated by chemical dealloying. The CuxO/NP-Cu (x = 1 and 2) composites can be used as supported electrode for supercapacitor. The specific capacitance of nanowires CuO/NP-Cu electrode is 143.63 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 mA cm−2, which is better than CuO/Cu2O/NP-Cu and NP-Cu electrodes. This can be attributed to the synergistic effect of NP-Cu structure with large internal surface and the morphology of CuO nanowire, which are favorable for electron transfer and enhancement of charge-discharge rate.