Synthesis of hydrophilic nickel zinc ferrite thin films by chemical route for supercapacitor application

Nanostructured nickel zinc ferrite (NZF) thin films were synthesized via chemical deposition method (CDM). This deposition process was based on the thermal decomposition of ammonia complex ions at 328 K. The pH of the bath solution was varied from 9.8, 9.9 and 10.0 to study its effect on the structural, morphological and electrochemical properties. The structural studies of oxide films were carried out using X-ray diffraction and FT-IR technique. All studies indicate nickel zinc ferrite phase formation with spinel crystal structure having improved intensity at increasing pH. Scanning electron microscopy reveals that morphology gets changed from grain like to hexagonal flakes which also increased the surface-to-volume ratio. The contact angle was improved from hydrophilic to super hydrophilic due to porous nature. Along with this, to propose NZF thin films for possible application in energy storage devices, its electrochemical supercapacitor properties have been studied in aqueous KOH electrolyte. The NZF thin film synthesized at pH 9.9 have shown high specific capacitance of 67 Fg−1.