Design and synthesis of ternary GO-Fc/Mn3O4/PANI nanocomposite for energy storage applications

Modified graphene oxide (GO) by a novel alkyne terminated ferrocene (Fc) was successfully synthesized through a click reaction. Afterwards, ternary nanocomposite consisting of modified GO (GO-Fc), Mn3O4 nanoparticles, and polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized via a simple physically mixing procedure for battery-type supercapacitor applications. The structure of the novel alkyne terminated Fc compound was confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-1 NMR), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (C-13 NMR), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The structure, electrochemical performance, and morphological details of the new materials were investigated with some analyses, including FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge measurement (GCD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. GO-Fc/Mn3O4/PANI nanocomposite has shown excellent capacity retention (80%) with a high battery-type charge storage capacity of 233 mAh g(-1) at 2.5 A g(-1). In a two electrode symmetrical system, a high energy density of 42.6 Wh kg(-1) along with a high power density of 5.56 kW kg(-1) was obtained. Thus, GO-Fc/Mn3O4/PANI nanocomposite can be a very suitable and promising candidate for future energy storage devices. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.