Synthesis of flower-like reduced graphene oxide–Mn₃O₄ nanocomposite electrodes for supercapacitors

A facile method was adopted to synthesize reduced graphene oxide–Mn₃O₄ (rGO–Mn₃O₄) nanocomposites with flower-like structure, and the Mn₃O₄ particles were uniformly embedded onto the rGO layers. The structural features were characterized by XRD, Raman and FTIR. The surface morphologies were observed by FE-SEM and TEM. XPS was conducted to confirm the surface chemical state and composition of the composite. The morphological studies confirmed that the Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles were dispersed with the average size of 10 nm and high uniformity. The rGO–Mn₃O₄ nanocomposite exhibited a high surface area of 225 m²/g and manifested high capacitance with outstanding rate capability in supercapacitors. A highest specific capacitance of 368.2 F/g was displayed at a current density of 0.75 A/g and outstanding capacity retention at 5 A/g even after 5000 cycles. The outstanding electrochemical performance of rGO–Mn₃O₄ nanocomposites may be credited to the crystallized Mn₃O₄ particles with small size (about 10 nm), high porosity, high specific surface area, and effective conductive pathway from rGO. The developed rGO–Mn₃O₄ nanocomposite materials hold highly promising prospects in supercapacitors.