Electrochemical study of Mo-doped Co3O4 nanostructures synthesized by sol–gel method

Presently, researchers are focusing towards the fabrication and use of metal-doped nanomaterials, which can offer outstanding capacitive performance. Hence, we are motivated to report Mo-doped Co3O4 porous nanostructures with different molybdenum contents prepared via a facile sol–gel strategy. The tuned crystalline, morphological, and elemental properties were confirmed with XRD and SEM equipped with EDX techniques. These nanomaterials were consisted on nanostructures with average size in the range of 40–60 nm. To examine the improved capacitive characteristics, electrochemical tests like CV, GCD, and EIS were conducted in a 3 M KOH electrolyte solution. The as-synthesized 5 at.% Mo-doped Co3O4 nanomaterial achieved an outstanding specific capacitance, i.e., 858.09 F/g, tested at a scan rate of 5 mV/s and an outstanding rate capability, i.e., 83.33% at 10 A/g higher scan rate during GCD tests at different scan rates ranging from 1 to 10 A/g. Furthermore, these nanostructures also exhibited high capacitance retention, i.e., 82.74% after 3000 CV cycles performed at scan rate of 5 mV/s. The superior supercapacitive performance of this material is credited to the development of nanostructures with high surface-to-volume ratio, enhanced specific capacitance, and good conductivities, achieved by appropriate molybdenum content. Hence, this material holds ideal promise for supercapacitor application.