Porous and single crystalline Co3O4 nanospheres for pseudocapacitors with enhanced performance

Abstract

Porous and single-crystalline Co₃O₄ nanospheres have been synthesized successfully on a large scale. It was found that the reaction time can dramatically affect the growth of the Co₃O₄ nanospheres in nanoreactors constructed with AOT⁻ and Co²⁺ ions. The dynamic evolution of the nanostructures produced in the reaction strongly support a stepwise splitting mechanism proposed to explain the formation of the porous and single crystalline nanospheres. The pseudocapacitors made with the porous and single crystalline Co₃O₄ nanospheres exhibit excellent charge-storage performance. The enhanced electrochemical properties of the materials can be attributed to their superstructures with pores and single crystalline features.