A ternary nanocomposites of graphene / TiO2 / polypyrrole for energy storage applications

Abstract

Designing a new electrode active materials including graphene and nanomaterials such as Titanium dioxide (TiO2) with polypyrrole have important for supercapacitor devices. In this work, we present a new ternary nanocomposite for using reduced graphene oxide (rGO), TiO2 and polypyrrole (rGO/TiO2/PPy) for supercapacitors. rGO/TiO2/PPy nanocomposites were characterized by the analysis of Fourier transform infrared-attenuated transmission reflectance (FTIR-ATR), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersion X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX). Electrochemical tests were taken by galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies. We have obtained the highest specific capacitance of C-sp = 431.23 F/g for [rGO](o)/[Py](o) = 1/1 at 10mV/s. A ternary rGO/TiO2/PPy nanocomposite has higher C-sp values than C-sp = 122.12 F/g at 10mV/s for rGO/PPy, C-sp = 93.17 F/g at 4mV/s for rGO and C-sp = 45.16 F/g at 4mV/s for GO.A high energy density was obtained as E = 2.03 Wh/kg and power density of P = 18.3kW/kg for rGO/TiO2/PPy nanocomposite at 1000mV/s. rGO/TiO2/PPy nanocomposite had a relatively high Coulombic efficiency, as well as a retention of approximate to 100% of its original capacitance for [rGO](o)/[Py](o) = 1/1 after 1000 cycles. A novel synthesized rGO/TiO2/PPy nanocomposite may be used for supercapacitor devices due to its good electrochemical performances.