Investigation of super-capacitive nature of reduced graphene oxide nano mesh grown over 18 k gold foil using wings of Parides iphidamas as biological template

Highlights: • Novel rGO nano mesh (rGONM) like assembly was fabricated using bio-template method. • rGONM pattern exhibit nano-ridges (40 nm) and ribs (25 nm) resembling fishing net. • Super-capacitor performances of rGO and rGONM coated Au substrates were evaluated. • rGO-Au and rGONM-Au revealed specific capacitances of 291 and 418 F/g respectively. - Abstract: This paper deals with the fabrication of novel, reduced graphene oxide nano mesh (rGONM) patterns with longitudinal nano-ridges and transverse nano-ribs using nano tubular structures found on the scales of Parides iphidamas, a butterfly species as biological template. Raman spectra, EDAX and FTIR results confirm the obtained mesh-like morphology that comprises only reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Further, super-capacitor performances of rGO and rGONM-coated gold substrates have been evaluated using cyclic-voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge cycle (GCD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) analysis. A characteristic rectangular curve obtained from the CV of rGO and rGONM-coated gold electrodes display specific capacitances of 291 F/g and 418 F/g respectively at a scan rate of 5 mV/s. The results obtained from EIS support the superior nature of rGONM-coated electrode against rGO system, suggesting the use of rGONM-Au as a potential candidate for electrochemical super capacitor applications.