Supercapacitor Electrodes: Is Nickel Foam the Right Substrate for Active Materials?

Ni foam is an extensively used current collector and substrate in investigations of electrochemically active materials such as supercapacitors and electrocatalysts for oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. This material is relatively cheap, porous, and conductive and has a large specific surface area, all of which make it a good substrate. We investigated Ni-Mg ferrites and NiMn₂O₄ as active materials for electrochemical energy storage. These materials, when loaded on Ni foam, gave promising capacitance values: 172 F/g (at 2 mV/s) for NiMn₂O₄ in 6 M KOH and 242 F/g (at 2 mV/s) for MgFe₂O₄ in 3 M KOH. Nevertheless, during the authors' work, many experimental problems occurred. Inconsistencies in the results directed further investigation towards measuring the capacitance of the active materials using GCE and platinum electrodes as substrates to discover if Ni foam was the culprit of the inconsistencies. When non-nickel substrates were used, both NiMn₂O₄ and MgFe₂O₄ showed reduced capacitance. Experimental problems associated with the utilization of Ni foam as a substrate for active materials in supercapacitor electrodes are discussed here, combined with other problems already addressed in the scientific literature.