Direct Hybridization of Graphene and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for High Performance Electrochemical Supercapacitors

Graphene oxide (GO), an oxidized form of graphene, has various advantages in the preparation of functional nanocomposites because it can be easily modified and can be produced in large quantity. Moreover, the reduction of GO sheets produces reduced GO (rGO) sheets, which provide a highly electro-conductive pathway and robust electrochemical reaction sites as an electrode material. Moreover, due to the presence of those functional groups, GO can be utilized as a novel platform for hybrid nanocomposites in chemical synthetic approaches. In this presentation, we demonstrate a straightforward strategy to prepare nanohybrids of rGO-metal oxide nanoparticles, such as SnO₂ and Cu₂O, via simple solution mixing. When precursor solutions and GO suspension were simply mixed, precursor ions were spontaneously formed into nanoparticles upon the deoxygenation of GO. This method anchored nanoparticles on the rGO sheets, preventing the re-stacking of rGO. Our investigation for the electrocapacitive properties of hybrid electrode showed the highly enhanced performance, compared with rGO-only electrode. Our straightforward route for preparing this graphene-based hybrid provides a high-throughput and scalable strategy to synthesize active electrode materials for highly efficient graphene-based supercapacitors.