Polylactic acid-based plastic activated NiAl₂O₄ nanoparticles as highly active positive electrode materials for energy storage supercapacitor

A simple, low-cost, and environmentally benign process for synthesizing nanostructured NiO/NiAl₂O₄ on multiple kinds of carbon nanostructures (CNS) is presented. This method develops polylactic acid (PLA) based waste plastic materials for the producing CNS. These composites (NiO@NiAl₂O₄/CNS) were examined as potential electrodes in supercapacitors (SC) as they exhibit good charge/discharge reversibility and provide adequate specific capacitance values with a maximum being 1984 F/g at 0.5 A g^-1. It is noteworthy that the cycling stability of this sample at 10 A g^-1 maintained 101.7% of its initial capacity even after 5000 GCD cycles. An asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was built and analyzed, with NiO@NiAl₂O₄/CNS serving as the cathode and activated carbon serving as the anode of the device. The concluded device has an energy density of 58 Wh kg^-1 with a power density of 986 W kg^-1 and a SCs of 216.5 F/g. The results showed that the materials mentioned are a great option to use as electrode materials in applications involving the storage of energy.