Tailoring a facile electronic and ionic pathway to boost the storage performance of Fe₃O₄ nanowires as negative...

Today, high-energy applications are devoted to boosting the storage performance of asymmetric supercapacitors. Importantly, boosting the storage performance of the negative electrodes is a crucial topic. Fe₃O₄-based active materials display a promising theoretical storage performance as a negative electrode. Thus, to get a high storage performance of Fe₃O₄, it must be tailored to have a higher ionic and electronic conductivity and outstanding stability. Functionalized graphite felt (GF) is an excellent candidate for tailoring Fe₃O₄ with a facile ionic and electronic pathway. However, the steps of the functionalization of GF are complex and time-consuming as well as the energy loss during this step. Thus, the in-situ functionalization of the GF surface throughout the synthesis of Fe₃O₄ active materials is proposed herein. Fe₃O₄ is electrodeposited at the in-situ functionalized GF surface with the crystalline nanowires-like structure as revealed from the various analyses; SEM, TEM, Mapping EDX, XPS, XRD, wettability test, and Raman analysis. Advantageously, the synthetic approach introduces full homogeneous and uniform coverage of the large surface area of the GF. Thus, Fe₃O₄ nanowires with high ionic and electronic conductivity are characterized by a higher storage performance. Interestingly, Fe₃O₄/GF possesses a high specific capacity of 1418 mC cm^-2 at a potential scan rate of 10 mV s^-1 and this value retained to 54% at a potential scan rate of 50 mV s^-1 at an extended potential window of 1.45 V. Remarkably, the diffusion-controlled reaction is the main contributor of the storage of Fe₃O₄/GF electrode as revealed by the mechanistic studies.