Effect of surfactant on the electrochemical performance of graphene/iron oxide electrode for supercapacitor

Abstract

In this study, reduced graphene oxide- Fe3O4 (RGO-Fe3O4) nanocomposite is fabricated using simple electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method followed by an electrochemical reduction process. It is characterized using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Fe3O4 nanoparticles with 20–50 nm in diameter are uniformly formed on RGO. Electrochemical properties of nanocomposite are characterized by cyclic voltammetery, galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. According to the galvanostatic charge/discharge analysis, RGO-Fe3O4/SS presents specific capacitance (Cs) of 154 F g−1 at current density of 1 A g−1, which is higher than that of RGO/SS (81 F g−1) in Na2SO4 electrolyte. Also, the electrochemical behaviors show that addition of three kind of surfactant, i.e. sodium dodecyl sulphate, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, t-octyl phenoxy polyethoxyethanol (Triton X-100) to Na2SO4 aqueous solution can improve the Cs of RGO-Fe3O4/SS electrodes. RGO-Fe3O4/SS in Na2SO4 electrolyte containing Triton X-100 shows maximum Cs of 236 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 which retains 97% of initial capacitance after 500 cycles.