Sucrose-directed porous carbon interfaced α-Fe2O3-rGO for supercapacitors

Abstract

Simultaneously embedding resonating 2D carbon into a metal oxide as a template and decorating in graphene layers offer a great strategy to enhance electronic properties in supercapacitor application. Brown sugar is abundant macromolecule with high content of sucrose and the application in supercapacitors would build diversification of brown sugar utilization. In this study, an interconnected network of iron oxide-mesoporous carbon hybrid (rGO/su-GC@Fe2O3) is synthesised through a microwave-assisted gel combustion using brown sugar as the carbon precursor to serve as Fe2O3 template, followed by wrapping the material within rGO nanosheets. Exploring the properties for supercapacitor, it delivered high specific capacitance of 1978F/g at 1 A/g and a cycling retention of 95.2% after consecutive 8000 cycles. The excellent performance hinges on the inimitable morphology with mesoporous channels marked with large surface area of 486 m2/g, high meso-porous percentage and the synergistic effect from resonating 2D graphitizable carbon, Fe2O3 and conductive rGO matrix. These results assert rGO/su-GC@Fe2O3 as productive promising supercapacitive electrode material for future utilization, meanwhile it could be applied in adsorption and electrocatalysis.