Graphene oxide-MnO2 nanocomposite for supercapacitor application

Abstract

Increased depletion of fossil fuels along with global warming and climate change made the society to think about alternate green and sustainable energy sources and better energy storage devices. Extensive research has been performed on the development of solar cells, fuel cells, Lithium- ion battery and supercapacitors to combat the green house effect and its consequences, and to meet the increased energy crisis. Supercapacitors, also known as electrochemical capacitors are gained a great attention because of their pulse power supply, long cycle life (>100,000), simple principle and high dynamic of charge propagation. Its greater power density than lithium- ion battery and much larger energy density than conventional capacitors brought super capacitors to a promising energy storage device to meet the increased energy demands. Here we demonstrate supercapacitor electrode materials with graphene oxide (electric double layer capacitor) and α-MnO 2 nanomaterial (pseudo-capacitor), as well as composite of these materials, which means that the bulk of the material undergoes a fast redox reaction to provide the capacitive response and they exhibit superior specific energies in addition to the carbon-based supercapacitors (double-layer capacitors). A simple soft chemical route is utilized to synthesize graphene oxide, α-MnO 2 and graphene oxide-MnO 2 composite. The phase and the structure of the synthesized materials are studied using X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The functional group and the presence of impurities are understood from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. The capacitive properties of the graphene oxide, graphene oxide - MnO 2 nanocomposite and α-MnO 2 are tested with the help of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge – discharge techniques using 1 M Na 2 SO 4 in aqueous solution as electrolyte. It was found that graphene oxide - MnO 2 nanocomposite shows better electrochemical behaviour compared to individual graphene oxide and α-MnO 2 nanomaterial.