Electrical conductivity and electrochemical studies of Cr-doped MoO3 nanoflakes for energy storage applications

Abstract

The growing demand for electricity has increased the interest of the researchers towards exploration of energy storing devices (ESDs). With the motif for developing electrochemical energy storage devices, this research work is focussed on the study of MoO3 nanoparticles and its doping with chromium as an efficient electrode material for energy storage applications. The nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal method and were examined by powder X-ray diffraction, which determined the thermodynamically stable orthorhombic phase of MoO3, and their morphologies were examined using scanning electron microscopy displaying flake-like structures. The typical vibrational bands of Mo–O were identified from Infra-red and Raman spectral analysis. The ultra violet diffuse reflectance spectra revealed the decrease in optical band gap after doping with chromium. The temperature dependent AC and DC conductivities were enhanced on doping. Electrochemical behaviour of the nanoparticles was probed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) analysis for which specific capacitance (Csp) value of 334 Fg−1 was achieved for Cr-doped MoO3 nanoparticles. The electrochemical performance of the sample was found to be increased after doping with Cr.