Carbon cloth/cobalt oxide integrated electrode as flexible cathode of alkaline batteries

Abstract

Development of integrated flexible electrode is important for construction of advanced electrochemical devices. In this work, we report an integrated flexible electrode by directional uniform deposition of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles on carbon cloth. Co₃O₄ nanoparticles of 20–50 nm are intimately interconnected with each other and grow homogeneously on the flexible carbon cloth forming an integrated electrode. When evaluated as flexible cathode of alkaline batteries, the carbon cloth/Co₃O₄ electrode shows good electrochemical performance with a capacity of 48.5 mAh/g at the current density of 2.5 A g⁻¹, and long-term cyclic stability with a capacity retention of 99% after 5500 cycles at 2.5 A g⁻¹. The enhanced performance is attributed to the porous structure and integrated architecture. The newly developed method can also be extended to fabricate other high-performance integrated flexible electrodes.

Keywords:

• Porous materials
• Cathode
• Thin films
• Cobalt oxides
• Alkaline batteries