A sphere-like NiCo metal–organic phosphate-modified glassy carbon electrode for electrochemical supercapacitors†

Based on the arresting properties of metal–organic phosphate, a sphere-like NiCo metal–organic phosphate (Ni₁₀Co₁-MOPh) was prepared according to a one-step hydrothermal method, which was characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, electron microscopy investigation and electrochemical measurements. These results exhibit that NiCo-MOPhs with different molar ratios of Ni : Co display different morphologies and electrochemical supercapacitor properties. It is noteworthy that the prepared Ni₁₀Co₁-MOPh electrode demonstrates superior supercapacitor properties in comparison to other as-prepared NiCo-MOPh samples, indicating that the improvement of the electrochemical supercapacitor property in MOPhs can be achieved through the proportion of multicomponent active metal cations and the formation of a unique sphere-like morphology.