Facile in-situ single step chemical synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-copper oxide-polyaniline nanocomposite and its electrochemical performance for supercapacitor application

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-copper oxide-polyaniline nanocomposites were synthesized by facile in-situ single step synthesis method with different weight ratio of polyaniline at fixed weight ratios of copper oxide and reduced graphene oxide (rGO); and characterized by IR spectroscopy, powder XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The electrochemical performances of as synthesized composites were studied using two electrode system in 2 M Na<inf>2</inf>SO<inf>4</inf> as electrolyte by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The composite with a weight of 300 mg of Polyaniline (PANI), corresponding to the composition (wt %) of rGO<inf>6.6%:</inf> Cu<inf>2</inf>O/CuO<inf>13.40%:</inf> PANI<inf>80%</inf> (GCP-300) exhibited superior electrochemical characteristics with specific capacitance of 213.20 F g?1, energy density of 18.95 W h kg?1, power density of 545.79 W kg?1, columbic efficiency of 91% and rendered 97.6% of retention of its initial capacitance up to 5000 charge-discharge cycles. The performance is superior to those of binary combinations of constituent materials viz., reduced graphene oxide (rGO), copper oxide and polyaniline, which is attributed to the extent of integration of afore mentioned materials. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd