Quantitative estimation of reversibility of the discharge process undergone by nickel hydroxide film cathodically deposited on pure nickel as a positive supercapacitor electrode using cyclic voltammetry and potential drop method

This work presents the way how to evaluate the degree of reversibility of the discharging process undergone by the nickel hydroxide film cathodically deposited on pure nickel as a positive electrode for electrochemical capacitor using the combined cyclic voltammetry and potential drop method, supplemented by galvanostatic discharge and open-circuit potential transient methods. The time interval necessary just to establish the current reversal of anodic to cathodic direction from the moment just after applying the potential inversion of anodic to cathodic direction, was obtained on cyclic voltammogram. The cathodic charge density passed upon dropping the applied potential, was calculated on potentiostatic current density-time curve. Both the time interval and the cathodic charge density in magnitude can be regarded as being measures of the degree of reversibility of the discharging process undergone by the positive active material for supercapacitor, i.e. , the longer the time interval is, the lower is the degree of reversibility and the greater the cathodic charge density is, the higher is the degree of reversibility. From the applied potential dependences of the time interval and cathodic charge density, discharge at $0.42 V_{SCE}$ was determined to be the most reversible.