Silver Nanoparticles Embedded on Reduced Graphene Oxide@Copper Oxide Nanocomposite for High Performance Supercapacitor Applications

Akhalakur Rahman Ansari; Sajid Ali Ansari; Nazish Parveen; Mohammad Omaish Ansari; Zurina Osman

doi:10.3390/ma14175032

Silver Nanoparticles Embedded on Reduced Graphene Oxide@Copper Oxide Nanocomposite for High Performance Supercapacitor Applications

Materials (Basel). 2021 Sep 3;14(17):5032. doi: 10.3390/ma14175032.

Authors

Akhalakur Rahman Ansari^{1

2}, Sajid Ali Ansari³, Nazish Parveen⁴, Mohammad Omaish Ansari², Zurina Osman^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
² Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Physics, College of Science, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 400, Al-Hofuf 31982, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 380, Al-Hofuf 31982, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Centre for Ionics Universiti Malaya, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.

Abstract

In this work, silver (Ag) decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coated with ultrafine CuO nanosheets (Ag-rGO@CuO) was prepared by the combination of a microwave-assisted hydrothermal route and a chemical methodology. The prepared Ag-rGO@CuO was characterized for its morphological features by field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy while the structural characterization was performed by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis was undertaken to confirm the elemental composition. The electrochemical performance of prepared samples was studied by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge in a 2M KOH electrolyte solution. The CuO nanosheets provided excellent electrical conductivity and the rGO sheets provided a large surface area with good mesoporosity that increases electron and ion mobility during the redox process. Furthermore, the highly conductive Ag nanoparticles upon the rGO@CuO surface further enhanced electrochemical performance by providing extra channels for charge conduction. The ternary Ag-rGO@CuO nanocomposite shows a very high specific capacitance of 612.5 to 210 Fg^-1 compared against rGO@CuO which has a specific capacitance of 375 to 87.5 Fg^-1 and the CuO nanosheets with a specific capacitance of 113.75 to 87.5 Fg^-1 at current densities 0.5 and 7 Ag^-1, respectively.

Keywords: electrochemical devices; metal; metal oxide; reduced graphene oxide.