Development of two-dimensional Mg doped ZnO nano hybrids as electrode materials for electrochemical supercapacitor applications

Abstract

In the past two and a half decades, there has been rapid growth in the study of electrochemical supercapacitors. Zinc oxide based electrode materials are proposed for supercapacitor applications because of their less price, eco-friendliness, good electrochemical reversibility, more specific capacitance, etc. In this research work, a set of nanohybrid electrode materials with a composition of Zn1-x Mgx O1-δ (where x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) has been prepared by a simple chemical precipitation technique. The prepared electrode materials were analyzed by XRD, FTIR, SEM and EDAX. Electrochemical studies, such as cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and impedance analysis were carried out in an aqueous electrolyte (1 molL-1 Na2 SO4) to understand the electrochemical characteristics of the Mg-doped ZnO nanohybrid materials. The findings show that the doping level of Mg in ZnO had an important role in understanding the capacitive behaviors of the materials. Among the four-electrode materials studied, Zn0.90 Mg0.10 O1-δ electrode material exhibits a maximum specific capacitance of 26.33 Fg-1 at a scan rate of 10 mV and hence which may be suitable for electrochemical supercapacitor applications.