Synthesis of manganese ferrite/graphene oxide nanocomposite and investigation of its supercapacitor behaviors

Currently, researchers are struggling with the development of energy storage systems, like high energy density supercapacitors, with cheap cost and high stability. Herein research we present a facile preparation and evaluation of the manganese ferrite/graphene oxide (MnFe2O4/GO) nanocomposite electrochemical behavior as active electrode material in supercapacitors. The chemical composition and morphology were specified with different physicochemical characterization techniques. The TEM and FESEM images exhibit MnFe2O4 semi-spherical nanoparticles on GO plates. The prepared electrodes performance were proceeded with charge-discharge galvanostatic measurement (GCD), electrochemical impedance (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The specific capacity value of MnFe2O4/GO new composite determined 298 F g−1 in 1 A/g current density. Also MnFe2O4/GO electrodic composite shows acceptable GCD stability, by maintaining its original capacity of 92% at 500 cycles. The EIS analysis also displays low internal resistance of MnFe2O4/GO compared to other electrodes in the same conditions. In addition to experimental analysis, density functional theory was also used to get a more accurate understanding of the electrochemical behavior of electrode materials. The theoretical results showed that with the formation of MnFe2O4/GO nanocomposite, the electron conductivity is improved (energy gap decreases to 0.019 eV) and leads to an increase in supercapacitor performance, which is in agreement with the experimental results.