Preparation and characterization of GO/ZnO electrode for supercapacitors

Abstract

The combination of metal oxide nanoparticles and advanced carbon-based materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene oxide (GQ) etc. has received much attention due to their potential applications in power storage devices as supercapacitors. In this paper, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were prepared by thermal decomposition of Zn (II) acetylacetonate in octadecene using oleic acid/oleylamine as surfactants and octadecanol as accelerating agent. A mixture of ZnO nanoparticles and GO, surfactants, binders are dispersed in aqueous solvent. This suspension was then used as the ink for the modified 3D printer to coat on the graphite substrate to form electrodes. The GO/ZnO film has a specific capacitance of 119.9 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s of CV test. The specific discharge capacitance was 153.9 F/g and retained 94.5 % after 3000 cycles of galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurement with a current density of 15 mA/cm2.