Tantalum pentoxide functionalized nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide as a competent electrode material for enhanced specific capacitance in a hybrid supercapacitor device

A simplistic hydrothermal method has been established for the fabrication of Nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide with tantalum pentoxide to generate a nanocomposite; NRGO-Ta2O5. Synthesized Ta2O5, NRGO, and NRGO-Ta2O5 nanocomposite have been subjected to morphological and structural evaluation by different analytical, spectroscopic, and electrochemical characterizations. The Characterization result confirms the doping of N to RGO and the formation of its recombination with Ta2O5. NRGO, Ta2O5 and NRGO-Ta2O5 nanocomposite has been evaluated for its electrochemical performances in supercapacitor applications by using various electrochemical techniques. The enhanced specific capacitance of 808 Fg−1 has been accomplished for NRGO-Ta2O5 nanocomposite compared to 179 and 535 Fg−1 for Ta2O5 and NRGO, respectively, at 2 Ag−1 current density using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. Chronopotentiometry technique has also been evaluated and observed the specific capacitance of 383 Fg−1 at a current density of 2 Ag−1. Further, NRGO-Ta2O5 nanocomposite has been used as an anode material in combination with activated carbon as cathode and fabricated asymmetric device found to attain a specific capacitance of 99 Fg−1 at 2.5 Ag−1 current density.