Structural and electrochemical properties of GO/Mn3O4 nanocomposite

A cost effective and facile sol-gel method is used to synthesize graphene oxide (GO)/Mn3O4 nanocomposite (NC). The synthesized materials (GO and GO/Mn3O4 nanocomposite) were analyzed using different characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the presence of Mn3O4 nanoparticles incorporated in the synthesized GO matrix. The stretching and bending vibrational modes corresponding to various functional groups (-OH, C-H, C-C, etc.) present in the FTIR spectra of the synthesized nanocomposite. The microstructural studies have been carried out through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) that revealed the layered morphology of GO and uniform size distribution of Mn3O4 nanoparticles over the GO layers. UV-visible measurement indicates a red shift in the GO/Mn3O4 nanocomposite absorption edge as compared to the GO and associated band gap reduced from 4.46 eV (GO) to 2.95 eV (GO/Mn3O4) attributed to the pi-pi non-covalent electrostatic interactions. The electrochemical study revealed a high specific capacitance of GO/Mn3O4 nanocomposite as compared to GO sheets, making it suitable candidate for supercapacitors.