Transformative impact of molybdenum on nickel phosphate hydrate electrodes towards superior energy storage application

Development of high capacity and long cycle life electrode materials is essential to improving energy storage capacity in electrochemical rechargeable devices. In order to be commercially viable, the synthesis of these materials must be straightforward, cost-effective, and ideally a single-step process. We present a binder-free synthesis method for nickel phosphate hydrate (NiPH) and nickel molybdenum phosphate hydrate (NiMoPH) on nickel foam via a simple hydrothermal process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the formation of NiPH and NiMoPH phases, while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) verified the presence of nickel (Ni), molybdenum (Mo), phosphorus (P), and oxygen (O) in the composite. Scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) revealed the formation of micro-flowers with plate-like structures in NiPH, which transformed into hexagonal rod-like structures upon the introduction of molybdenum in NiPH. This morphological and phase modification increased the charge storage capacity from 1441 mF/cm² (NiPH) to 2945 mF/cm² (NiMoPH) at 20 mA/cm². The NiMoPH electrode demonstrated excellent capacitance retention of 91.8 % over 10,000 cycles. Additionally, asymmetric supercapacitor (ASS) devices were fabricated using NiPH and NiMoPH as positive electrodes and activated carbon (AC) as the negative electrode. The NiPH//AC and NiMoPH//AC configurations exhibited energy densities of 0.086 and 0.201 mWh/cm², respectively, with the NiMoPH//AC device maintaining about 90 % capacitance retention over 15,000 cycles. This study demonstrates the potential of incorporating conductive transition metals to enhance electrode material performance in energy storage applications.