Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01218-y Low‑cost fabrication of BiOCOOH microfowers for high‑performance supercapacitors applications Yinxia Chen 1  · Xianbing Ji 1  · S. Vadivel 2  · B. Saravanakumar 3 Received: 18 December 2018 / Accepted: 25 March 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract The synthesis of bismuth based materials with porous structures for supercapacitor application has drawn much attention due to their high specifc surface area and easy access of electrolytes with the electrode surface through their hierarchical pores. In this present report, we synthesized a three dimensional (3D) BiOCOOH micro fowers by a solvothermal approach and applied to supercapacitor applications. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy results confrmed that the formation of porous BiOCOOH fowers. When BiOCOOH was used as electrode material for supercapacitors it exhibits a maximum specifc capacitance value of 312 F g −1 at current density of 1 Ag −1 . Additionally, the BiOCOOH fowers retained 52% of its initial specifc capacity after 5000 charge–discharge cycles indicat- ing an excellent cyclic stability. This improvement in the cycle stability of the BiOCOOH is ascribed to high surface area and enhanced ion transport through the pores of the BiOCOOH fowers. This high specifc capacitance and excellent cyclic stability of the porous BiOCOOH fowers prove to be a promising candidate for supercapacitor application. 1 Introduction The growing attention on the global energy crisis has greatly boosted the development of various energy storage devices, such as Na/Li-ion batteries, and supercapacitors (SCs) as alternative energy storage devices for various hybrid electric vehicles [1, 2]. For example, lead acid and Li-ion batter- ies are considered to be a typical rechargeable battery has been widely accepted for electrochemical storage systems [3]. However, most of these commercial batteries were greatly sufered from the lower power density and sluggish performance upon long-cycles. In this situation, SCs were exploited to deliver high energy density, which has been well adapted to provide uninterrupted power for electric vehicles, computers, and automobiles etc. [4, 5]. Furthermore, the SCs also well known as ultracapacitors can be fully charged- discharged within a very quick time. Thus, the electrode materials used in SC’s electrode determine the quality of the SC electrodes. With the tunable structural properties and electrochemical stability, transition metal oxides have gained huge attention for supercapacitor electrode materials. In the past few decades, the pseudoca- pacitor type materials, such as RuO 2 , MnO 2 , NiO, Co 3 O 4 , and V 2 O 5  are widely studied for supercapacitors due to their higher specifc capacitance and energy densities respectively [6–9]. Recently, various binary or ternary metal oxides such as NiCo 2 O 4  and CuCo 2 O 4  also gained extensive focus among researchers due to their outstanding electrochemical properties than pure metal oxides [10]. In order to avoid the hazardous nature and cost-efectiveness of ruthenium and vanadium based metal oxides, the bismuth-based materials like Bi 2 O 3 , BiOX (X = Cl, I) and its corresponding phases can be used as alternative electrodes for supercapacitors [11]. To date, various bismuth materials with various mor- phologies and higher specifc capacitance values with good stabilities were reported. The present work will be of great importance since no eforts were made to employ BiOCOOH as a functional elec- trode material. The BiOCOOH is a typical ‘‘sillen” mate- rial with a layered structure mainly composed of [Bi 2 O 2 ] * Xianbing Ji jixianbing1981@sina.com * S. Vadivel vlvelu7@gmail.com 1 Hebei University of Environmental Engineering, Qinhuangdao 066102, Hebei, China 2 Department of Chemistry, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, India 3 Department of Physics, Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu 642003, India