Improved electrochemical and photocatalytic performance of the surfactant assisted zinc oxide nanoparticles for supercapacitor and wastewater treatment applications

In the present era, the scientific community is curious in improving the electrochemical and photocatalytic properties of the oxides, with the aim to make them suitable for the supercapacitor and wastewater treatment applications. Keeping this in view, in this report, hydrothermal approach was used to fabricate zinc oxide nanoparticles. Here, the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate, and the stabilizing agent polyvinylpyrrolidone and polyaniline (PVP-PANI) were used to alter the properties of final product. SEM and HR-TEM confirmed the hexagonal structure, and the X-ray diffraction revealed decrease in crystallite size by the addition of surfactant. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller Analysis revealed improved surface area for PVP-PANI assisted ZnO, and the FTIR band at 441 cm-1 ascertained the formation of ZnO nanoparticles. At a scan rate of 2 mV/s, the computed value of specific capacitance for the ZnO and ZnO assisted with PVP-PANI were 329.38 and 528.88 F/g respectively. A power density (0.3 kW/kg) was obtained corresponding to energy density (1.85 Wh/kg) for zinc oxide modified electrodes, assisted with PVP-PANI. For ZnO assisted with PVP-PANI, a photocatalytic degradation efficiency of 91.66 and 97.38 % was achieved with MB-Dye and Bisphenol A respectively. Due to the high specific capacitance, energy density and the photocatalytic activity of the surfactant assisted zinc oxide modified electrodes, these prove themselves as potential candidates for supercapacitors and wastewater treatment applications.