Graphene oxide-grafted ferrocene moiety via ring opening polymerization (ROP) as a supercapacitor electrode material

A novel supercapacitor based on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with graphene oxide (GO) grafted ferrocene by ring opening polymerization (ROP) was developed. The graphene oxide nanosheets were treated with ethanolamine to prepare graphene oxide modified surface based on ring opening reaction of its epoxide groups (GO-ETA). GO-ETA nanosheets were grafted with ferrocenyl moiety by on-surface initiated ring opening polymerization of ferrocenyl based oxirane. Ferrocenyl based oxirane was synthesized through reaction of epichlorohydrin with 4-ferrocenylbutanol in the presence of NaOH and tetrabutylammonium iodide as phase transfer catalyst. The prepared ferrocenyl garafted GO (GO-PolyFc) sample was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The synthesized GO-PolyFc was immobilized on glassy carbon and its electrochemical behavior was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results indicated that this material exhibits practically interesting electrochemical characteristics as supercapacitor electrode material with a specific capacity of about 200 F g(-1).