Investigation of Chemical Bath Deposited Transition Metals/GO Nanocomposites for Supercapacitive Electrodes

In this work, the chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique was utilized in the synthesis of transition metals/GO nanocomposites (Co3O4/MnO2/NiO/GO) for applications in supercapacitor electrodes. The nanocomposites after characterization showed that the electrically conductive nature and wide surface area of graphene oxide (GO) accounted for its incorporation into the nanocomposites. The synergy between the nanocomposites accounts for their improved performance and stable phase. The XRD results revealed cubic, orthorhombic, cubic, and mixed phases for the Co3O4/GO (CG), MnO2/GO (MG), NiO/GO (NG), and Co3O4/MnO2/NiO/GO (CMNG), respectively; their morphologies showed platelet nanoparticles with few agglomerates, with an average particle size of 69 ± 12 nm, 37 ± 09 nm, 58 ± 36 nm, and 36 ± 08 nm, respectively. For the produced materials, electrochemical results revealed maximum specific capacitance values of 2482 F/g from cyclic voltammograms and 1280.48 F/g from the galvanometric test. The results showed that the composites outperform single transition metal oxide (TMO) electrodes, with graphene oxide boosting the electrode performance.