Effect of fuel type on pseudocapacitance behaviour of CuO nanoparticles synthesized by solution combustion method

The copper oxide nanoparticles are obtained, via one-step, rapid, eco-friendly solution combustion synthesis using glycine and urea as fuel, to investigate the influence of fuel type on electrochemical behaviour. The structural characteristics are performed using X-ray diffraction method. The cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cycle stability tests are carried out in 6 M KOH electrolyte using a three-electrode system at room temperature. The electrochemical results show that the CuO synthesized using glycine (CuO–G) exhibits superior performance as an electrode in supercapacitor applications. The specific capacitance (16.72 F g−1) of the CuO–G electrode is higher than that (0.68 F g−1) of CuO synthesized using urea (CuO–U) electrode at a current density of 0.1 A g−1. Moreover, CuO–G electrode exhibits higher energy and power density of 0.41 Wh kg−1 and 143.5 W kg−1 compared to CuO–U electrode of 0.04 Wh kg−1 and 141.05 W kg−1, respectively. The results demonstrate that the CuO–G nanoparticles possess better electrochemical properties than CuO–U nanoparticles.