Synthesis, characterization and electrochemical evaluation of a novel high performance GO-Fc/PANI nanocomposite for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

A novel high-performance nanocomposite based on ferrocene (Fc) functionalized graphene oxide (GO) and polyaniline (PANI) for battery-type supercapacitor applications was successfully synthesized. The GO sheets were functionalized by using 4-ferrocenylbutylamine as a redox compound. Then, the final nanocomposite was obtained by physical treatment of PANI and functionalized GO sheets. The chemical structure, electrochemical behaviors and morphological structure of synthesized compounds were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), galvanostatic charge-discharge measurement (GCD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, respectively. The charge storage capacity was calculated from GCD curves. Our calculated results exhibit that the GO-Fc/PANI nanocomposite depicted high mass specific charge retention density of 208 mAh g−1 at current density 2.5 A g−1. These results indicate that the presence of Fc and PANI in the final nanocomposite improved charge transfer property of GO after modification. In addition, the GO-Fc/PANI has shown excellent cycling stability up to 3000 cycles with good retention of 85.54% of the initial charge storage capacity.