Electrochemical Supercapacitors of PPy/GO-CoO Prepared by Hydrothermal Method for Energy Storage

This study sought to improve energy storage capacities by mixing hydrothermally produced polypyrrole nanofibers (PPy-NFs) with graphene oxide (GO) and cobalt oxide (CoO) nanoparticles. PPy-NFs were doped with GO-CoO NPs in different weight ratios (20%, 40%, and 60%) to create three hybrid nanocomposites. PPy-NFs and hybrid nanocomposites were subjected to many tests to determine how their structural and electrochemical features change with increasing GO-CoO NPs content, to aim of improving capacitive performance. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed a shift in the crystal structure of CoO NPs when interacting with PPy-NFs and GO NPs. the 60% GO-CoO hybrid nanocomposites showed only four CoO crystal peaks, while the 40% sample showed only two peaks. This suggests that the incorporation process disrupted the CoO crystal, turning it into a semi-crystalline or amorphous state. This change is attributed to the strong interactions among the components during fabrication, which may have optimized the distribution of the materials. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) images showed an interconnected network of PPy-NFs nanofibers. More molecules attached to the surface of the manufactured PPy NFs because the GO-CoO ratio increased, modifying the hybrid nanocomposite's nanostructure. A significant promote in electrochemical performance was associated to this morphological evolution: the 40% GO-CoO nanocomposite attained a specific capacitance of 102.03 F/g, that was more than twice the capacity of pure PPy-NFs (46.2 F/g).