BiVO4/RGO hybrid nanostructure for high performance electrochemical supercapacitor

Highlights: • Facile synthesis of hierarchical porous BiVO₄/RGO hybrid nanostructure. • BiVO₄/RGO hybrid nanostructure display excellent supercapacitive performance. • Specific capacitance of BiVO₄/RGO ca. 484 F g⁻¹ at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹. • BiVO₄/RGO binary nanocomposite display outstanding cyclic stability. • 87% capacitance retention was achieved after 2000 charge-discharge cycles. -- Abstract: Here we report electrochemical supercapacitance performance of a hybrid binary composite material composed of hierarchical bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) crystals embedded in reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal method. The resulting BiVO₄/RGO composite material was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Raman scattering, Fourier transformed infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry charge/discharge measurements revealed that the BiVO₄/RGO hybrid composite structure exhibits superior electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 484 F g⁻¹ at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹ and 343 F g⁻¹ at current density of 1 A g⁻¹ as well as excellent cycling stability sustaining about 87% of the initial capacitance after 2000 charge/discharge cycles at 10 A g⁻¹. These results indicate that this BiVO₄/RGO hybrid material could be suitable as a supercapacitor electrode material for energy storage applications.