Morphological variation of highly porous Ni-Sn foams fabricated by electro-deposition in hydrogen-bubble templates and their performance as pseudo-capacitors

Ni-Sn alloy foams with different morphologies for pseudo-capacitor applications have been prepared by electro-deposition involving a hydrogen evolution reaction. The morphology depends upon the composition of electrolytes and the electro-deposition temperature. Among the several different structures of Ni-Sn foams, one that has been prepared at 45 °C represents the best electro-chemical performance of 1313 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and it retained up to 91% of its initial performance even after 5000 cycles of charge-discharge. This Ni-Sn foam has a planar dendrite structure with bundles of flower-like tubes, providing highly porous foam with an extremely large surface area.