Fabrication and electrochemical properties of periodic pillared-layer nickel hybrid electrode

• A periodic pillared-layer nickel electrode from negative replication of anodic alumina photonic crystal template
• α-Ni(OH)2 grown in-situ on the nanoporous nickel film after cyclic voltammetry
• High areal capacitance, large volumetric capacitance and good cycling stability

A periodic pillared-layer nickel hydroxide/nickel hybrid electrode was fabricated by electroforming nickel on an interconnected anodic alumina photonic crystal template followed by cyclic voltammetry. The XRD results confirmed the α-Ni(OH)2 grown in-situ on the nanoporous nickel. The periodic pillar-layered hybrid electrodes showed the ultrahigh volumetric capacitance of 1387 F cm− 3 and a large areal capacitance of 2.51 F cm− 2 calculated from the discharge curves (at discharge current densities of 5 mA cm− 2) and it also showed good cycling stability (no loss of capacitance after 1000 cycles at a scan rate of 10 mV s− 1). The enhanced capacity performance for the layered hybrid electrode is mainly attributable to the optimized nanostructure of the current collector.