Fabrication of Ternary Hierarchical Nanosheets RGO/PANI/Fe ₂ O ₃ as Electrode Material with High Capacitance Performance

Abstract

The sandwich structure hierarchical nanosheets are synthesized by an easy and reproducible way. RGO/PANI hybrid nanosheets were firstly synthesized by the polymerization of polyaniline (PANI) on reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Secondly, ternary hierarchical nanosheets of RGO/PANI/Fe 2 O 3 were fabricated by in situ growth of Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles on RGO/PANI nanosheets with mixing K 2 FeO 4 solution and RGO/PANI under room temperature. The electrochemical study displays that RGO/PANI/Fe 2 O 3 is a typical pseudo-capacitance electrode material. RGO/PANI/Fe 2 O 3 hierarchical nanosheets have the largest specific capacitance of 605.2 F g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 . Compared with pure RGO and PANI, binary nanosheets of RGO/PANI and RGO/Fe 2 O 3 , after 5000 cycles, ternary hierarchical nanosheets still retain 93.2% initial capacitance at 0.5 A g −1 and show good stability. The good capacitance performance can be ascribed to unique sandwich-like hierarchical structure. RGO plays as scaffold to support PANI and improves the conductivity of composites. PANI can enhance the specific capacitance of hybrid nanosheets and anchor Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles. With the protection of Fe 2 O 3 film, the swelling and shrinking of PANI can be restrained. Therefore, the RGO/PANI/Fe 2 O 3 nanosheets with sandwich structure are ideal electrode material, which have potential application prospect in supercapacitor.