Fabrication of reduced graphene oxide/CeO2 nanocomposite for enhanced electrochemical performance

Abstract

A facile hydrothermal technique was utilized for the preparation of the CeO2/rGO nanocomposite. X-ray diffraction pattern was used to identify the crystal structure and calculate the crystallite size of the prepared samples. The average crystallite sizes for CeO2 and rGO/CeO2 nanocomposites were calculated to be 14 and 12 nm, respectively. The spectral analysis confirmed the functional groups of CeO2 nanoparticles and CeO2/rGO nanocomposites. The presence of G and D band peaks as well as the CeO2 and CeO2/rGO peaks was confirmed by the FT-Raman analysis. The optical characterization of the synthesized sample was also examined with the help of UV–visible absorption and photoluminescence spectra. The surface morphology of the prepared sample was analyzed by the scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscopy. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis confirmed the existence of cerium, oxygen and carbon as the elementary components in the nanocomposite. The electrical properties such as the dielectric constant, the dielectric loss and the AC conductivity were also analyzed. The observed specific capacitances for the CeO2/rGO composite and that of pure CeO2 NPs were calculated as 89 Fg−1 and 77 Fg−1, respectively. Thus, CeO2/rGO nanocomposites can exhibit excellent capacitive performance and thereby serve as a promising anode material for supercapacitor applications.