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An efficientfficient, controllable and facile two-step synthesis strategy: Fe3O4@RGO composites with various Fe3O4 nanoparticles and their supercapacitance properties

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Abstract

An efficient, controllable, and facile two-step synthetic strategy to prepare graphene-based nanocomposites is proposed. A series of Fe3O4-decorated reduced graphene oxide (Fe3O4@RGO) nanocomposites incorporating Fe3O4 nanocrystals of various sizes were prepared by an ethanothermal method using graphene oxide (GO) and monodisperse Fe3O4 nanocrystals with diameters ranging from 4 to 10 nm. The morphologies and microstructures of the as-prepared composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption measurements, and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that GO can be reduced to graphene during the ethanothermal process, and that the Fe3O4 nanocrystals are well dispersed on the graphene sheets generated in the process. The analysis of the electrochemical properties of the Fe3O4@RGO materials shows that nanocomposites prepared with Fe3O4 nanocrystals of different sizes exhibit different electrochemical performances. Among all samples, Fe3O4@RGO prepared with Fe3O4 nanocrystals of 6 nm diameter possessed the highest specific capacitance of 481 F/g at 1 A/g, highlighting the excellent capability of this material. This work illustrates a promising route to develop graphene-based nanocomposite materials with a wide range of potential applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21521091, 21390393, U1463202, 21573119, and 21590792), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFA0202801) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2015RC070).

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  1. Chao Lian and Zhuo Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Chao Lian

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Chao Lian, Zhuo Wang, Rui Lin, Dingsheng Wang, Chen Chen & Yadong Li

  3. Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Zhuo Wang

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  1. Chao Lian
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  2. Zhuo Wang
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  3. Rui Lin
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  5. Chen Chen
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Correspondence to Chen Chen.

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Lian, C., Wang, Z., Lin, R. et al. An efficientfficient, controllable and facile two-step synthesis strategy: Fe3O4@RGO composites with various Fe3O4 nanoparticles and their supercapacitance properties. Nano Res. 10, 3303–3313 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1543-8

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