Electrochemical and optical study of BiPO4 nanostructures for energy storage applications

In the present work, BiPO4 nanostructures were synthesized at via facile microwave technique. The structure and morphology of the synthesized sample were studied using an X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) respectively. XRD analysis revealed monoclinic phase formation of BiPO4 nanostructures without any impurity peak and the average crystallite size calculated through Debye Scherrer?s formula is found to be 41 nm. FTIR and Raman spectroscopy also confirms the pure phase formation of BiPO4 nanostructures. SEM study shows the morphology of the synthesized sample and also confirms that synthesized material is in the nano-size range. The electrochemical properties of the as-prepared sample were studied by galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement in a three-electrode system with 2 M KOH solution as an electrolyte. Specific capacitance is calculated from cyclic voltammetry and is found to be 309 Fg(-1) at 2 mVs(-1) which decreases by increasing scan rate from 2 mVs(-1) to 35 mVs(-1) . Also, Specific capacitance is calculated from GCD and is found decrease from 268 Fg(-1) to 171 Fg(-1) as current density increases from 1 Ag-1 to 10 Ag-1 . The investigation reveals that as-synthesized BiPO4 nanostructures can be utilized as an efficient electrode material for supercapacitor applications, providing sustainable and economic benefits. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.