Effect of dye-adsorption on Fe3O4-polypyrrole nanocomposite as electrode material in electrochemical capacitors

Abstract

In this study, we have analyzed the effect of adsorption of organic dyes like methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) on the electrochemical performance of Fe3O4-polypyrrole (Fe3O4-PPy) nanocomposite as electrode material in supercapacitors. We have performed cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for electrochemical measurements. The results of this work reveal that the nanocomposite shows higher specific capacitance than that of the dye adsorbed forms. But in terms of cyclic stability the dye modified nanocomposites show superior performance than the Fe3O4-PPy nanocomposite. Among all the three electrode materials Fe3O4-PPy-MO shows highest cyclic stability retaining 85% of initial capacitance after 1000 cycles along with a good specific power. The results of this work reveal that adsorption of organic dyes significantly improves cyclic stability of the nanocomposite as electrode material.