Synthesis and characterization of Ni2P2O7 thin film as a superior electrode material for high performance supercapacitors.

The electrochemical performance of the supercapacitors essentially relies on electrode materials. The transition metal phosphates have drawn much attraction as electrode material for energy storage in supercapacitors. Ni₂P₂O₇ (NP) thin film electrodes are synthesized through economic and reproducible chemical bath deposition technique by varying Ni concentration 0.05 M, 0.1 M, and 0.15 M. The X-ray diffraction pattern reveals the formation of monoclinic structured NP thin films with high crystallinity. The microsphere like morphology in which agglomerated microspheres assembled in large number with average particle size decreases with increase of molar concentration is visualized by scanning electron microscopy. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis demonstrates the pseudocapacitive nature in NP thin film electrodes. NP3 electrode exhibits the high specific capacitance of 588 F/g at current density 1 A/g evaluated by galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) profile. The cyclic stability test of NP3 enunciates its capacitive retention as 95.50% after 2500 cycles. The results indicate that NP3 is an exemplary supercapacitor candidate and it would lead to productive research in future energy storage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]