Abstract
We present grafting of polycarboxyphenyl polymer on the surface of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) via a free radical polymerization and subsequent anchoring of the metal oxide nanoparticles for the evaluation of their potential applicability to supercapacitor electrodes. Here, metal oxide nanoparticles, Fe3O4and Sm2O3, were created after the oxidation of metal precursors Sm(NO3)3and FeCl2, respectively, and attached on the surface of polycarboxyphenyl-grafted MWCNT (P-CNT) in aqueous medium. This approach shows a potential for enhancing the dispersion of Fe3O4and Sm2O3nanoparticles on the wall of P-CNT. The structure and morphological characteristics of the purified MWCNT, P-CNT, and metal oxide-anchored polycarboxyphenyl-grafted MWCNT (MP-CNT) nanocomposites were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The electrochemical performance of the purified MWCNT electrode, P-CNT electrode, and MP-CNT electrodes was tested by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge discharge in a 1.0 M H2SO4aqueous electrolyte. The results showed that the specific capacitance of the purified MWCNT was 45.3 F/g at the scan rate of 5 mV/s and increased to 54.1 F/g after the modification with polycarboxyphenyl polymer. Further modification of P-CNT with Sm2O3and Fe3O4improved the specific capacitance of 65.84 F/g and 173.38 F/g, respectively, at the same scan rate.
Highlights
With increasing the awareness for pollution control, industry and research centers around the world are searching for the possible alternatives to the development of renewable energy production for the replacement of fossil fuel [1, 2]
A conventional twoelectrode configuration was used to study the electrochemical behavior of the prepared electrode materials by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurements
Our approach covers the grafting of 4-carboxyphenyl diazonium salt on the wall of purified multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) to give carboxyphenyl-grafted MWCNT
Summary
With increasing the awareness for pollution control, industry and research centers around the world are searching for the possible alternatives to the development of renewable energy production for the replacement of fossil fuel [1, 2]. The specific surface area and functional groups of carbon nanomaterials impact the electrode performance. Microwave irradiation of graphite oxide [9, 10] is an effective way to increase the surface area of graphene sheets and resulting porous material shows high capacitance. Kotal et al [18] showed the effects on amidation of carbon nanofiber and, the grafting of PANI to obtain high capacitance and good cycling stability. The synergistic combination of outstanding conducting properties of carbonaceous materials and high pseudocapacitance of conducting polymers and metal oxide can amalgamate for the development of high-performance supercapacitors. Though supercapacitors of carbon-based materials with conducting polymers are in their growing state [18, 21], there are not any reports that show the electrochemical properties of metal oxide decorated-conjugated polymergrafted-carbon nanomaterial composites. The effect of the covalent functionalization as well as metal oxide decoration was compared for the electrochemical performance of the composites
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