Floss-like Ni-Co binary hydroxides assembled by whisker-like nanowires for high-performance supercapacitor

Floss-like Ni-Co binary hydroxides (FL-NCOH), assembled by whisker-like nanowires, are synthesized via a facile hydrothermal process with sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as the soft template. The forming process of FL-NCOH is clarified by tuning the hydrothermal reaction time. The result indicates that floccule-like nickel-cobalt hydroxide nanoclusters gradually become longer and slenderer nanowires to form FL-NCOH with the increase of reaction time. The dissolution-recrystallization of hydroxide plays an important role in the morphology control of nickel-cobalt hydroxide. The high specific surface area (106.5 m(2) g(-1)) and the suitable 3D structure endow the as-prepared FL-NCOH material high specific capacitance (up to 918.9 F g(-1) at the current density of 0.2 A g(-1)), good high-rate performance (594.2 F g(-1) even at 10.0 A g(-1)), and long cycle life (98.7 % capacitance retention after 3000 charge-discharge cycles at 2.0 A g(-1)).