Microwave synthesis of antimony oxide graphene nanoparticles – a new electrode material for supercapacitors

Abstract

For the first time, antimony oxide nanoparticles were produced using a microwave technique and evaluated as a supercapacitor electrode. The specific capacitance derived from the material's galvanostatic charge–discharge curve was 98 F g⁻¹ in 1 M Li₂SO₄ electrolyte at 0.1 A g⁻¹ current density. The charge storage mechanism visible in the CV curve is nearly rectangular and identical to the EDLC charge storage mechanism. Additionally, antimony species were chemically attached to graphene oxide using an antimony(III) chloride precursor and subsequently microwave aided procedures were used to convert the antimony species to SbO-G nanocomposites. The results of energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy demonstrated the pure character of the produced material. In a three-electrode cell arrangement, the resulting composite was electrochemically characterized. The cyclic voltammogram results showed that among the pristine SbO, graphene, and SbO-G materials, SbO-G had a higher specific capacitance value of 37.58 F g⁻¹, at a scan rate of 10 mV s⁻¹. The material has also demonstrated good conductivity characteristics based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy research. After 3500 galvanostatic charge–discharge cycles, the material had excellent cycling stability of ∼100%. All the remarkable capacitive properties demonstrated by this material indicate that it can be a viable choice in the field of energy storage devices.