Materials Science and Engineering B 284 (2022) 115881 Available online 18 July 2022 0921-5107/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Controlled growth of Mo-Doped NiO nanowires with enhanced electrochemical performance for supercapacitor applications Rizwan Ahmed a , Ghulam Nabi a, b, * , Faisal Ali a , Faiza Naseem c , Muhammad Isa Khan a , Tahir Iqbal a , Muhammad Tanveer a, b , Qurat-ul-Aain a , Wajid Ali a , Naeem Shahzad Arshad a , Anum Naseem d , Mudassar Maraj a , Muhammad Shakil a, * a Departmentof Physics, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan b ResearchCentre of Materials Science, School of Material Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, PR China c Department of Mathematics, Rawalpindi Women University, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi 46300, Pakistan d Department of Mathematics, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: NiO Mo-doping Hydrothermal Nanowires Supercapacitors Application ABSTRACT To cope with energy crises occurred owe to over-consumption in the domain of industrial and domestic, re- searchers are focusing to design some effcient energy storage devices specially supercapacitors. Here, Mo-doped NiO nanowires based electrode material for supercapacitors have been fabricated. XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR, BET and XPS studies revealed the successful growth and doping of molybdenum in nickel oxide. Their corresponding CV studies revealed that among the 1-7 wt% Mo-doped NiO nanomaterials, the 5 wt% Mo-doped NiO nano- material showed highest value of CV (1096.64 Fg 1 ). GCD studies showed an excellent change retention (80.95 %) and EIS exhibited highly conductive nature. The capacitance of 5 wt% Mo-doped NiO sample is 874.02 Fg 1 after 3000 cycles, which is 79.7% retention and coulombic effciency at the end of 3000th cycle is 92.20%. On the basis of these above-mentioned abilities, this best sample is proposed to be used for practically application for supercapacitors. 1. Introduction Continually enhancing the energy consumption owe to industrial society, global markets and population enhancement are resulting in energy scarcity and urgent demand of sophisticated ways to stock and deliver power and energy with the help of highly effcient energy storage devices [1–4]. These energy stocking devices have reduced the need of fossil fuels which are supposed to be not available in future due to their currently high consumption rate. Owe to this reason, the electroactive devices are considered as to effcient substitute to conventional energy resources [4]. Supercapacitors have been proved effcient devices for energy stocking and to deliver high power densities owe to some fabu- lous capacitive characteristics such as superior cyclic life, eco-friendly in nature, lightweight rate capability, low-cost maintenance and superior energy and power densities [5–8]. Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been strongly recommended and are being used as an effcient electrode material for supercapacitors owe to their unique pseudocapacitive properties. Some widely used TMOs are ruthenium oxide (RuO 2 ), cobalt oxide (Co 3 O 4 ), iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ), zinc oxide (ZnO) and nickel oxide (NiO) which have attained higher preference than others owe to their excellent electrochemical performance [9,10]. Among of various TMOs materials, NiO has got a promising candi- dature to be used for supercapacitor owe to its unique capacitive abili- ties including: high value of theoretical specifc capacitance equal to 3750 Fg 1 , abundant in nature, good stability and low cost for com- mercial use and ideal thermal stabilities [9]. In contrast to these excel- lent characteristics, this material has also to face some challenges like: poor conductive nature, short capacitance retention and limited cyclic ability [9]. A principal tactic to overcome the above mentioned frst challenge is to tune the morphology of the as prepared material in nanostructures such as to maximize the surface area and plus point is that these nanostructures will not experience any physical alternation [11]. No doubt, high surface to volume ratio resulting in owe to nanostructures-based morphology will enhance the contacts between electrolyte charges and active sites and also help for sharp ions trans- portation during redox reactions [12,13]. In addition to this approach, * Corresponding authors at: Departmentof Physics, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan. E-mail addresses: gnwattoo@yahoo.com, gnwattoo@uog.edu.pk (G. Nabi), m.shakil@uog.edu.pk (M. Shakil). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Science & Engineering B journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mseb https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2022.115881 Received 27 September 2021; Received in revised form 17 June 2022; Accepted 14 July 2022