In situ synthesis of nanostructured Fe3O4@TiO2 composite grown on activated carbon cloth as a binder-free electrode for high performance supercapacitors

Hai Wang; Xingping Xu; Anne Neville

doi:10.1039/d1ra04424a

In situ synthesis of nanostructured Fe₃O₄@TiO₂ composite grown on activated carbon cloth as a binder-free electrode for high performance supercapacitors

RSC Adv. 2021 Jul 5;11(38):23541-23549. doi: 10.1039/d1ra04424a. eCollection 2021 Jul 1.

Authors

Hai Wang^{1

2}, Xingping Xu¹, Anne Neville²

Affiliations

¹ College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China) Qingdao 266580 China.
² Institute of Functional Surfaces, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT UK mnhw@leeds.ac.uk.

Abstract

Transition metal oxide (TMO) nanomaterials with regular morphology have received widening research attention as electrode materials due to their improved electrochemical characteristics. In this study we present the successful fabrication of an Fe₃O₄/TiO₂ nanocomposite grown on a carbon cloth (Fe₃O₄/TiO₂@C) used as a high-efficiency electrochemical supercapacitor electrode. Flexible electrodes are directly used for asymmetric supercapacitors without any binder. The increased specific surface area of the TiO₂ nanorod arrays provides sufficient adsorption sites for Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. An asymmetric supercapacitor composed of Fe₃O₄/TiO₂@C is tested in 1 M Na₂SO₃ electrolyte, and the synergistic effects of fast reversible Faraday reaction on the Fe₃O₄/TiO₂ surface and the highly conductive network formed by TiO₂@C help the electrode to achieve a high areal capacitance of 304.1 mF cm^-2 at a current density of 1 mA cm^-2 and excellent cycling stability with 90.7% capacitance retention at 5 mA cm^-2 after 10 000 cycles. As a result, novel synthesis of a binder-free Fe₃O₄/TiO₂@C electrode provides a feasible approach for developing competitive candidates in supercapacitor applications.