Nanostructed Nickel Hydroxide Electrodes by Electrodeposition

Nickel hydroxide electrodes are highly researched1 because it is versatility, being applied to electrochromism, non-enzymatic sensing and electrocatalysis. Nanocubic Ni(OH)2 is synthetized by electrodeposition of nickel on ITO (indium tin oxide) substrate, using a NiSO4 and NiCl2 solution. The conversion of Ni to Ni(OH)2 was performed by cycling the ITO/Ni electrode in basic media. Picture 1a shows the cyclic voltammogram of this conversion, emphasizing the change of the voltammograms by the number of cycles, Picture 1b presents the SEM image of the resulting material containing nanocubes of Ni(OH)2 formed. To verify the formation mechanism of the material, linear positive potential sweeps were made from 0V on steps of 0.1 V, Picture 1c presents the linear sweep of the first oxidation scan. And, the last Picture shows nanocubes formation at the region of 0.5 to 0.6 V, and the remaining amorphous structure of nickel. The nanocubic Ni(OH)2 is formed during the anodic voltammogram scan waves, and by increasing the number of cycles more Ni is converted to Ni(OH)2 which would allow its application to non-enzymatic sensing on glucose solutions with preliminary results showing low response to common interferences, Picture 2.