Ferrite Nanoparticles for Energy Storage Applications

Clean and green energy is need of today’s era to overcome the environmental pollution caused by combustion of fossil fuels. Generation and conservation of energy is a great concern in meeting such targets of preventing environmental pollution and satisfying the increasing energy demand. A variety of energy storage devices like supercapacitors, fuel cells and rechargeable batteries have gained attention to solve the purpose of energy storage with high efficiency. Among these energy storage devices, supercapacitors are the most widely studied by scientists worldwide owing to their high power and current density, long-time cycling stability and fast charge/discharge rates. The supercapacitors can be used specifically as back-up power devices. However, the main shortcoming with a supercapacitor is its low energy density which hinders its applications for practical purposes and thus poses a great challenge in exploring them for high energy and power density. This chapter discusses the role of ferrite nanostructures as efficient materials for energy storage devices. In case of ferrites, there are fast and reversible redox reactions occurring at the interface of electrode/electrolyte which give rise to charge storage. To design a promising and highly efficient supercapacitor, the electrode material must have following properties: high specific capacitance, low cost for synthesis, wide range of operating potential and easy availability on earth. Specifically, ferrites having mixed oxidation states have proved themselves as desirable candidates for designing electrodes in supercapacitors. This chapter will discuss the ferrite nanostructures and their electrochemical properties for applications in energy storage devices.