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

Abstract 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 (1H NMR), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (13C 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.