Water hyacinth-derived activated carbon/NiO nanocomposite as a facile electrode material for high performance supercapacitor

Water hyacinth-based activated carbon (denoted as WHc) decorated with porous petaloid-like nano-NiO has been fabricated by hydrothermal method. The hierarchical petaloid-like NiO composed of numerous nanoplates is uniformly covered on the surface of WHc. Such unique nanocomposite exhibits excellent electrochemical performances: a high specific capacitance of 249.5 F g−1, a good rate capability and an excellent cycling performance with 78.35% retention after 1000 cycles can be obtained at a current density of 1 A g−1. These results suggest that the porous petaloid-like WHc/NiO nanocomposite (denoted as WHc/NiO) may be promising for practical applications for supercapacitors.