Effects of palladium/nickel doping on the electrochemical properties of carbon nanotubes electrode materials for supercapacitors

This work aims to use carbon nanotubes with high aspect ratio, high specific surface area and high conductivity in the field of supercapacitors and improve the contact resistance between them and metal electrodes. Carbon nanotubes were doped with transition metal palladium by electroless deposition method and transition metal nickel by metal organic frameworks. Palladium and nickel doped carbon nanotubes/polyvinyl alcohol composites were used to modify glassy carbon electrodes and carbon cloth, respectively, and the modified carbon cloth was used as electrode material to assemble supercapacitors. Then the modified glassy carbon electrodes and supercapacitors were tested by cyclic voltammetry and alternating-current impedance. The results show that the values of specific capacitance of Pd-doped and Ni-doped carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrodes are 9.89 F/g and 5.99 F/g, respectively. And the values of specific capacitance of supercapacitors assembled using carbon cloth modified with Pd-doped and Ni-doped carbon nanotubes are 175.77 mF/g and 61.92 mF/g, respectively. It can be seen that the effect of Pd doping on reducing the internal resistance and improving the electrochemical perfor-mance of carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode and supercapacitor is better than that of Ni doping, which serves as a reference for the application of doped carbon nanotubes in supercapacitors and other energy storage devices.