Facile synthesis of Fe3O4 nanorod decorated reduced graphene oxide (RGO) for supercapacitor application

The development of electrode materials capable of delivering high electrochemical performance is a major challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a facile approach for the synthesis of rod-shaped Fe3O4 nanostructures anchored on the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) surface and its application as an active electrode material for supercapacitors. The RGO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite was prepared by the spontaneous deposition of the rod-like FeOOH nanostructure onto the self-reduced GO surface followed by a thermal annealing process. The physical characterizations demonstrate the decoration of the rod-like Fe3O4 nanostructure over the RGO surface. Morphology analysis demonstrates that Fe3O4 nanorods with an average size of 150 nm are distributed over the RGO surface. The surface area analysis demonstrates that the as-synthesized RGO-Fe3O4 nanorod nanocomposite has 186 m(2) g(-1) specific surface area, which is higher compared to the Fe3O4 nanorods. As an active electrode material, the RGO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite shows excellent electrochemical performance compared to Fe3O4 nanorods. On the RGO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite based electrode a specific capacity of 315 C g(-1) was observed at 5 A g(-1) current density. Additionally, the RGO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite based electrode displayed excellent cycling stability with 95% specific capacity retention after 2000 cycles. The electrochemical results demonstrates that the RGO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite could be a promising material for energy conversion and storage.