One-step Electrophoretic/electrochemical Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide/Manganese Oxide (rGO-Mn3O4) Nanocomposite and Study of its Capacitive Performance

Herein, a very simple and scalable electrochemical strategy is reported to fabricate reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-Mn3O4 nanoparticles composite for supercapacitors. First, graphene oxide is directly produced via Hummers method, and dispersed in manganese nitrate aqueous solution. The rGO-Mn3O4 particles nanocomposite is then prepared through electrochemically decoration of Mn3O4 nanoparticles onto reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets. The formation of composite is explained by electrophoretic/electrochemical deposition (EPD/ECD) mechanism. The as-prepared rGO-Mn3O4 nanocomposite is characterized by XRD, IR, FE-SEM and TEM techniques. These analyses results specified the co-deposition of manganese oxide particles and rGO sheets on the cathode electrode. The charge storage ability of the fabricated nanocomposite as electrode material for supercapacitors was studied using cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge techniques. The obtained electrochemical data indicated that the rGO-Mn3O4 nanocomposite enable to provide specific capacitance of 364 F g−1 at 2 A g−1 and 86.3% of its initial capacity after 5000 charge/discharging.