Musa paradisiaca reduced graphene oxide (BRGO) /MWCNT-Fe3O4 nanocomposite for supercapacitor and photocatalytic applications

Abstract

This paper reports novel eco-friendly reduction of GO to RGO (BRGO) by Musa paradisiaca extract for choice in many areas of application. However, the layer by layer tight stackin in their thin film form inevitably diminishes the interlayer space between homogeneous ultrathin nanosheets, which could significantly hinder the electrolyte diffusion. Herein, Fe3O4 nano particles are uniformly dispersed on MWCNT with the less agglomeration and then fabricated composite with BRGO for energy storage (supercapacitor) and water remediation (photocatalytic) application. After preparation, the BRGO Fe3O4-MWCNT nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV), transmission electron Microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. The electrochemical behaviour of the material was analysed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanometric charge–discharge (GCD) study and impedance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation was carried out in a photocatalytic chamber. The synthesized nanocomposite exhibited a high specific capacitance value of 165 F/g at 2 A/g and also showed good photo degradation efficiency on the methylene green dye (MG), which is higher than the degradation efficiency of other individual materials like Fe3O4-MWCNT and BRGO. The prepared nanocomposite was found to have good cyclic stability in the capacitance study and it mineralizes the organic dye to an extent of 94%. BRGO-Fe3O4-MWCNT as effective nanocomposite for application as advanced supercapacitor electrode and developing novel photocatalyst for remedy of environmental problems.