One-step solution-phase synthesis of a novel RGO–Cu2O–TiO2 ternary nanocomposite with excellent cycling stability for supercapacitors

Abstract

A novel reduced graphene oxide (RGO)–Cu2O–TiO2 ternary nanocomposite was successfully fabricated via a facile one-step solution-phase method. The synthesized RGO–Cu2O–TiO2 nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, and its electrochemical properties as an active electrode material for supercapacitors were investigated through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements in a 6M KOH aqueous electrolyte. The obtained RGO–Cu2O–TiO2 nanocomposite exhibits a specific capacitance of 80Fg−1 at a current density of 0.2Ag−1 in the 6M KOH electrolyte, nearly twice the value of 41.4Fg−1 for the RGO–Cu2O nanocomposite and 2.5times the value of 32.7Fg−1 for the RGO–TiO2 nanocomposite. Furthermore, the specific capacitance of RGO–Cu2O–TiO2 increases from 80 to 91.5Fg−1 after 1000cycles, which can be said the least that the capacitance has not changed within error, while the specific capacitances of RGO–Cu2O and RGO–TiO2 decrease from 41.4 to 34.5Fg−1 and from 32.7 to 25.2Fg−1, respectively.