Fabrication of Ternary Hierarchical Nanosheets RGO/PANI/Fe2O3 as Electrode Material with High Capacitance Performance

Abstract

The sandwich structure hierarchical nanosheets are synthesized by an easy and reproducible way. RGO/PANI hybrid nanosheets were firstly synthesized by the polymerization of polyaniline (PANI) on reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Secondly, ternary hierarchical nanosheets of RGO/PANI/Fe2O3 were fabricated by in situ growth of Fe2O3 nanoparticles on RGO/PANI nanosheets with mixing K2FeO4 solution and RGO/PANI under room temperature. The electrochemical study displays that RGO/PANI/Fe2O3 is a typical pseudo-capacitance electrode material. RGO/PANI/Fe2O3 hierarchical nanosheets have the largest specific capacitance of 605.2 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1. Compared with pure RGO and PANI, binary nanosheets of RGO/PANI and RGO/Fe2O3, after 5000 cycles, ternary hierarchical nanosheets still retain 93.2% initial capacitance at 0.5 A g−1 and show good stability. The good capacitance performance can be ascribed to unique sandwich-like hierarchical structure. RGO plays as scaffold to support PANI and improves the conductivity of composites. PANI can enhance the specific capacitance of hybrid nanosheets and anchor Fe2O3 nanoparticles. With the protection of Fe2O3 film, the swelling and shrinking of PANI can be restrained. Therefore, the RGO/PANI/Fe2O3 nanosheets with sandwich structure are ideal electrode material, which have potential application prospect in supercapacitor.