Facile synthesis of α-MoO3 nanobelts and their pseudocapacitive behavior in an aqueous Li2SO4 solution

Abstract

α-MoO3 nanobelts were successfully prepared by a facile hydrothermal method with sodium molybdate (Na2MoO4) as the Mo source and NaCl as the capping agent. The as-prepared products were characterized using Fourier transformation infrared spectrophotometry (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and selected area electronic diffraction (SAED) and their pseudocapacitive properties were investigated in a 0.5 M aqueous Li2SO4 solution by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP) and AC impendence. The results show that the dimensions of the as-prepared α-MoO3 nanobelts are 200–400 nm in width, ca. 60 nm in thickness and 3–8 µm in length. The redox potential for the α-MoO3 nanobelts is found in the range of −0.3 to −1.0 V vs. SCE, which indicates that the α-MoO3 nanobelts can be used as anode electrode materials for hybrid supercapacitors. The specific capacitances of the α-MoO3 nanobelts at 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 A g−1 are 369, 326, 256 and 207 F g−1, respectively. The maximum specific capacitance of the α-MoO3 nanobelts is much higher than those of MoO3 nanoplates with 280 F g−1, MoO3 nanowires with 110 F g−1 and MoO3 nanorods with 30 F g−1 recently reported in literature. Furthermore, the α-MoO3 nanobelt electrode exhibits a good cycle stability with more than 95% of the initial specific capacitance maintained after 500 cycles. Additionally, the present route to prepare nanostructured MoO3 is much less expensive than those with Mo powders as the Mo source. Overall, the obtained high performance α-MoO3 nanobelts could be a promising electrode material for supercapacitors.