PolyHIPE Derived Freestanding 3D Carbon Foam for Cobalt Hydroxide Nanorods Based High Performance Supercapacitor

The current paper describes enhanced electrochemical capacitive performance of chemically grown Cobalt hydroxide (Co(OH)2) nanorods (NRs) decorated porous three dimensional graphitic carbon foam (Co(OH)2/3D GCF) as a supercapacitor electrode. Freestanding 3D porous GCF is prepared by carbonizing, high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) polymerized styrene and divinylbenzene. The PolyHIPE was sulfonated and carbonized at temperature up to 850 °C to obtain graphitic 3D carbon foam with high surface area (389 m2 g-1) having open voids (14 μm) interconnected by windows (4 μm) in monolithic form. Moreover, entangled Co(OH)2 NRs are anchored on 3D GCF electrodes by using a facile chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The wide porous structure with high specific surface area (520 m2 g-1) access offered by the interconnected 3D GCF along with Co(OH)2 NRs morphology, displays ultrahigh specific capacitance, specific energy and power. The Co(OH)2/3D GCF electrode exhibits maximum specific capacitance about ~1235 F g-1 at ~1 A g-1 charge-discharge current density, in 1 M aqueous KOH solution. These results endorse potential applicability of Co(OH)2/3D GCF electrode in supercapacitors and signifies that, the porous GCF is a proficient 3D freestanding framework for loading pseudocapacitive nanostructured materials.