Increasing surface active Co2+ sites of MOF-derived Co3O4 for enhanced supercapacitive performance via NaBH4 reduction

Dodecahedral NaBH4-reduced Co3O4 (R-Co3O4) was successfully prepared via a conformal transformation method. Such facile procedure leads to abundance of electrochemically active sites of Co2+ ions. The as-prepared R-Co3O4 affords the material an improved specific capacitance of 329 F/g, which is triply that of the pristine Co3O4. In addition, an enhanced cycling stability is also achieved for the R-Co3O4. Thus, we develop a novel but simple route for large-scale industrial production of electrochemically active materials via NaBH4 reduction.