Electrifying energy storage by investigating the electrochemical behavior of CoCr₂O₄/graphene-oxide nanocomposite as...

This study reports novel three-step electrochemical fabrication of CoCr₂O₄/graphene-oxide nanocomposite on glassy carbon electrode including sequential synthesis of graphene-oxide using modified Hummer's method, CoCr₂O₄ nanoparticles using sol-gel method and the cost-effective co-precipitation technique for nanocomposite formation. The resulting nanocomposite was subjected to comprehensive analytical and morphological analysis. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) confirms nanocomposite formation with reduced average crystallite size value of 26.9 nm whereas SEM indicates spherical grains existence within nanocomposite. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) confirms no impurity peak existence whereas Raman spectroscopy clearly indicated D and G band existence at 1345 and 1587 cm^-1 respectively. Photoluminescent spectra reveals decreasing trend in band gap value about 3.49 eV. The electrochemical properties of CoCr₂O₄/graphene-oxide nanocomposite electrode explored, showcasing remarkable capacitance with a surface area of merely 0.068 cm², 574.8 F/g specific capacitance in alkaline 1M KOH and 488.6 F/g specific capacitance in acidic 0.1M H₂SO₄ electrolyte. Moreover, synthesized nanocomposite demonstrates remarkable electrochemical stability resulting capacitance retention about 95 % after 100 cycles in 1M KOH electrolyte. GCD analysis reveals impressive power and energy density values of 2489 W/kg and 14.88 Wh/kg respectively. These outstanding properties make the nanocomposite an attractive material for next-generation supercapacitors and energy storage solutions.