Cost-effective and facile development of Fe₃O₄–reduced graphene oxide electrodes for supercapacitors

Abstract

Graphene-based nanocomposite materials have drawn the serious attention of researchers due to their remarkable applications in the field of energy storage. Here, in the current work, the authors prepared various composite electrode materials composed of iron oxide and reduced graphene oxide. A simple cost-effective and one-step hydrothermal approach was employed, for the first time, using a combination of two reducing agents, namely urea and starch. The formation of composite materials was characterised using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The electrochemical characteristics of the as-manufactured composite materials were explored using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge tests. It was found that the iron oxide–reduced graphene oxide composite prepared by using two reducing agents exhibits higher specific capacitance (286.6 F g− 1) at scan rate of 5 mV s− 1 in 1M KOH solution.