Cuprous oxide nanocubes decorated reduced graphene oxide nanosheets embedded in chitosan matrix: A versatile electrode material for stable supercapacitor and sensing applications

Abstract

Herein, we report cuprous oxide nanocubes decorated reduced graphene oxide (CNC-rGO) immersed in chitosan matrix as a versatile and enhanced electrochemically active electrode material for both supercapacitor and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) sensor applications. The CNC-rGO was synthesized by one-pot scalable chemical precipitation method. The morphology and crystal structure of as-synthesized hybrid material was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The CNC-rGO hybrid material immersed in the chitosan matrix was used as an enhanced electrochemically active electrode material for supercapacitor and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) sensor. The fabricated CNC-rGO hybrid in chitosan matrix as an electrode showed remarkable charge storage capacity of 772.3Fg−1 (12.87mAhg−1) at a current density of 0.2Ag−1 with high cyclic stability over 2000 charge-discharge cycles. Similarly, H2O2 sensing performance of the same electrode exhibits very high sensitivity of 0.33AM−1cm−2 within a linear range of detection of 20–160μM. Thus, the synthesized CNC-rGO hybrid material composed of numerous cuprous nanocubes on rGO nanosheets with large active sites showed enhanced electrochemical activity beneficial towards the supercapacitor and H2O2 sensor applications.