Fabrication and Electrochemical Performance of Al-Doped ZnO Nanosheets on Graphene-Based Flexible Substrates

Qi Yu,Liyun Jiang,Shuai Ren,Ping Rong,Yapeng Li

doi:10.3389/fmats.2019.00208

Abstract

In this work, Al-doped ZnO nanosheets (NSs) were successfully synthesized on graphene-coated polyethylene terephthalate (GPET) flexible substrate by hydrothermal method. Studies have indicated that with the addition of Al3+, the nanostructure of ZnO gradually grows from nanorods (NRs) to NSs, and the (100), (002) and (101) diffraction peak strength of ZnO that grow perpendicular to the substrate along the c-axis weakened. The mechanism of hydrothermal growth of Al-doped ZnO/GPET was also studied. The electrochemical properties of the samples were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and it is concluded that Al-doped ZnO NSs grown on GPET substrates has better capacitance performance than undoped ZnO NRs.

Highlights

Up to now, energy reserves and environmental contamination are still the focus of extensive attention, especially the problems of air pollution, water pollution, global warming, and renewable energy, which are closely linked with our lives
It is not difficult to see that Al-doped ZnO (AZO) NSs, with its smooth surface, still grow perpendicularly to the graphene-coated polyethylene terephthalate (GPET) substrate and are connected together to form a network structure
Further study on the of different scanning rates of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 mV/s on the electrochemical characteristics of 0.1 mol/L AZO NSs nanostructures (Figure 3B), and the results showed that the electrical current density increases with the increases of scan rates, which confirmed that 0.1 mol/L AZO NSs nanomaterials have excellent scanning ability

Summary

Introduction

Energy reserves and environmental contamination are still the focus of extensive attention, especially the problems of air pollution, water pollution, global warming, and renewable energy, which are closely linked with our lives. As the electrode material of supercapacitor, ZnO has been paid more and more attention because of its advantages of high chemical stability and thermal stability, low cost, environment friendly, and easy doping.

Results

Conclusion