Facile structural tuning and compositing of iron oxide-graphene anode towards enhanced supacapacitive performance

Abstract

Hydrothermal has been demonstrated to effectively tune the various morphologies of nanostructured Fe2O3 materials from 0D nanoparticles, 1D nanorods to self-assembled nanorods which form 3D ovoid architecture. Subsequently, compositing and reduction of graphene oxide (GO) were carried out simultaneously via facile base reduction. The as-synthesized nanocomposite was fabricated into an electrode material of hybrid supercapacitor and characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The synergistic effects of highly uniform 1D Fe2O3 nanorods of low internal resistance, enhanced ion diffusion as well reduced graphene sheets incorporation lead to superior electrochemical performances. The nanocomposite exhibits pseudocapacitive properties of high specific capacitance ~504Fg-1 at 2mA/cm2. Although many metal oxide and reduced GO hybrid systems have been investigated as electrode materials, this study demonstrates simple and effective tuning of Fe2O3 nanostructures morphologies to significantly impact the pseudocapacitive performances. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.