The Effect of Pre-reduction of Graphene Oxide on the Electrochemical Performance of rGO-TiO2 Nanocomposite

Abstract

The graphene oxide -TiO2 (GO-TiO2) and pre-reduced graphene oxide -TiO2 (rGO-TiO2) nanocomposites were fabricated successfully by hydrothermal method. The microstructure of synthesized nanocomposites was investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. Moreover, galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods in three electrode system were applied to evaluate electrochemical properties. The results revealed that nanoparticles distributed more uniformly on graphene sheets, at lower concentrations of TiO2. The rGO-TiO2 and GO-TiO2 nanocomposites showed 224 and 32 F/g specific capacitance at 5 mV s-1 scan rate in 1 M KOH aqueous electrolyte, respectively. The pre-reduction of graphene oxide is the main reason for the better electrochemical performance of rGO-TiO2 nanocomposite compared to GO-TiO2 nanocomposite.

Keywords

• pre-reduction
• nanocomposite
• hydrothermal
• reduced graphene oxide
• supercapacitor
• tio2.