Pore size, conductivity and surface area effects of rGO/ZnO/PTh hybrid nanocomposite for supercapacitors

Abstract

This paper presents an easy and low-cost synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and Zinc oxide (ZnO) as binary nanocomposite (rGO/ZnO) and rGO, ZnO and polythiophene (PTh) as ternary hybrid nanocomposite (rGO/ZnO/PTh). Firstly, graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized from modified Hummers method. And it was reduced by microwave-assisted method to form as reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Polythiophene (PTh) was chemically synthesized to comparison with nanocomposites. Secondly, binary nanocomposite of rGO/ZnO were synthesized by probe-sonication method. Thirdly, rGO/ZnO/PTh hybrid nanocomposite was chemically synthesized using FeCl3 as an oxidant. All these materials were examined by many different techniques, such as FTIR-ATR, SEM-EDX, TGA-DTA, BET, Four-point probe analysis, cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis. The average pore width, conductivity and specific capacitance values were comparatively investigated to understand these effects on electrochemical performances of supercapacitor devices.The highest specific capacitance (Csp) was obtained as Csp = 430 F/g for rGO/ZnO nanocomposite at a scan rate of 2 mV/s. Moreover, it also shows a good charge/discharge performance (up to 1000 cycles) with 98.43 % capacitance retention at a scan rate of 100 mV/s by CV method. However, GCD and EIS methods have showed the highest specific capacitances as Csp = 85.6 F/g at 10 A/g, and Csp = 25.8 F/g for both hybrid rGO/ZnO/PTh nanocomposites, respectively. In addition, a new equivalent circuit model [R1(C1(Rct(C2R2)))] was suggested to interpret the EIS data for supercapacitor devices. As a results, both binary and ternary nanocomposites may be recognized as electrode materials with three different methods (CV, GCD and EIS) in supercapacitor applications.