Fabrication and comparison of composites of cerium metal-organic framework/reduced graphene oxide as the electrode in supercapacitor application

The composites of Cerium Metal Organic Framework (Ce-MOF) and reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) were prepared and applied as the working electrode for supercapacitor application. Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized using the modified Hummers' method, and it was reduced using thermal shock at 500 °C. Synthesis of Ce-MOF was performed by a fast and facile solvothermal procedure at 60 °C during 1 h. The composites of MOF and rGO were prepared by physical mixing with different mass fractions of 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2, respectively, as the base materials of the working electrode and they were compared with the pure MOF and pure rGO in electrochemical tests. The results revealed that the efficiency of all the composites were higher than the pure Ce-MOF and rGO, and the composite with equal mass fraction of Ce-MOf and rGO showed the best results. The best fabricated electrode exhibited the highest capacitance of 556.3 F g −1 at the scan rate of 2 mV s −1 with the energy density of 60 Wh kg −1 at a power density of 450 W kg −1 in 3 M KOH electrolyte. The stability of the capacitance was examined for 4000 cycles, and only 3.7 % reduction was observed for the best mass fraction. • Supercapacitor electrode was fabricated by composites of Ce-MOF and rGO. • Different composites were evaluated to optimize mass ratio of Ce-MOF and rGO. • CV, GCD, CCV and EIS revealed excellent supercapacitor behavior of composites.