Microparticles with hetero-nanointerfaces: controlled assembly of cobalt hydroxide and nickel hydroxide nanoclusters towards improved electrochemical functions

JOBBÁGY, MATÍAS; TOKUDOME, YASUAKI; TAKAHASHI, MASAHIDE; TARUTANI, NAOKI; SOLER-ILLIA, GALO J. A. A.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Royal Society of Chemistry

Año: 2019 vol. 7 p. 25290 - 25296

2050-7488

The ultimate control of the interfaces of nanocomposite materials is essential to tailor and improve their physical/chemical properties in applications such as catalysis and energy storage and production. Fabrication and co-assembly of a variety of nanostructured colloids are promising ways to design the interface of materials in the nano-scale toward high functionality. In this study, we demonstrate the synthesis of colloids of nanocluster-sized (∼2 nm) cobalt and nickel hydroxides and their assembly into microparticles that present hetero-nanointerfaces. The electrochemical properties were investigated to elucidate the effect of the hetero-nanointerface. Microparticles with hetero nanostructures composed of cobalt and nickel hydroxide nanoclusters revealed improved mass specific capacity (91.4 mA h g-1) compared with the respective microparticles with homo-nanointerfaces (cobalt hydroxide, 15.8 mA h g-1; nickel hydroxide, 64.4 mA h g-1). Further investigation suggests that the introduced hetero-nanointerface leads to lower charge transfer resistance and improved electrochemical properties. The synthetic concept demonstrated here is expected to create unique hetero-nanointerfaces for various materials with a wide-range of chemical compositions towards improved and novel functionalities.