LAUSR

Abstract Iron oxide decorated reduced graphene oxide (Fe3O4/rGO) nanocomposites were synthesized using a one-step chemical reduction method. The XRD results reveal the diffraction planes at 2θ = 36.53° and 43.04° corresponding to the planes (311) and (400) respectively for Fe nanoparticles and the broadened peak at 26.52° was observed corresponds to plane (002) for rGO which confirmed the formation of Fe3O4 in rGO sheets. FTIR results shows the chemical bonding at around 580.96 cm−1, 1191.61 cm−1, 1559.36 cm−1, 2358.27 cm−1, 2987.45 cm−1 and 3360 cm−1 attributes for the Fe O, C O, C C, C O, C-H2 and O H bonds respectively whereas Raman shift for Fe3O4 was found in the range of 100–800 cm−1. The ID/IG ratios varied from 2.5 to 1.55 as Fe(NO3)3 concentration increases from 5 mM to 25 mM. The estimated bandgap for rGO and rGO/Fe3O4 are 2.60 eV, and from 2.52 to 2.34 eV respectively as the Fe(NO3)3 concentration increases from 5 mM to 25 mM. The atomic percentage of Fe(2p), C(1s), and O (1s) was varied as 0.75–7.11 at.%, 86.09–69.58 at.% and 13.16–23.31 at.% as the Fe(NO3)3 concentration increases from 5 mM to 25 mM. The maximum specific capacitance was achieved at 416 F/g for 25 mM of Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite with cyclic stability of 88.57% at a current density of 5Ag−1 over 1000 cycles. Hence, Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite can be considered as a good candidate for the supercapacitor electrode applications.