Nano Express
Influences of graphene oxide support on the electrochemical performances of graphene oxide-MnO2 nanocomposites
1 Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore
2 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
3 Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore
4 Department of physics, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, 117542 Singapore, Singapore
Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:531 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-6-531
Published: 27 September 2011Abstract
MnO2 supported on graphene oxide (GO) made from different graphite materials has been synthesized and further investigated as electrode materials for supercapacitors. The structure and morphology of MnO2-GO nanocomposites are characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Nitrogen adsorption-desorption. As demonstrated, the GO fabricated from commercial expanded graphite (denoted as GO(1)) possesses more functional groups and larger interplane gap compared to the GO from commercial graphite powder (denoted as GO(2)). The surface area and functionalities of GO have significant effects on the morphology and electrochemical activity of MnO2, which lead to the fact that the loading amount of MnO2 on GO(1) is much higher than that on GO(2). Elemental analysis performed via inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy confirmed higher amounts of MnO2 loading on GO(1). As the electrode of supercapacitor, MnO2-GO(1) nanocomposites show larger capacitance (307.7 F g-1) and better electrochemical activity than MnO2-GO(2) possibly due to the high loading, good uniformity, and homogeneous distribution of MnO2 on GO(1) support.
