Porous and nanowire-structured NiO/AgNWs composite electrodes for significantly-enhanced supercapacitive and electrochromic performances

Abstract NiO/AgNWs composite films which specially contain both porous and one-dimensional (1D) nanowire structures are prepared uniformly via a simple chemical bath deposition method. The supercapacitive electrodes constructed by the as-prepared NiO/AgNWs composite films exhibit a high specific capacitance (980 F g −1 at 1 A g −1 ), much higher than that of the pure NiO films. Particularly, a large optical modulation (84.3% at 550 nm) and short switching times for the coloration and bleaching (5.4 and 6.5 s) are also observed if these NiO/AgNWs films serve as the electrochromic materials. The superior capacitive and electrochromic properties of the NiO/AgNWs composite films are attributed to the large electrochemically effective surface areas and enhanced conductivity induced by the addition of 1D AgNWs, which efficiently shorten the ions/electrons diffusion paths and accelerate the reversible redox reactions. Therefore, the NiO/AgNWs composite films hold a great potential for applications as a novel electrode material in supercapacitive and electrochromic devices.