Electrochemical properties of SnO2/rGO nanocomposites

SnO2 nanoparticles were deposited on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to obtain SnO2/rGO composites with high energy storage capacitance. For this purpose, graphite oxide (GtO) was synthesized and hydrothermally treated in presence of Sn precursor. The quantity of GtO was varied to tune the heterostructures’ composition and the particles size of the SnO2. The XRD and SEM analyses revealed that the GtO was exfoliated, reduced and decorated with SnO2 nano-particles during the hydrothermal treatment. With the increase of GtO quantity the SnO2 particle size decreased from ~30 nm to ~14 nm. The Cyclic Voltammetry analysis showed that the pure rGO exhibited typical supercapacitor behavior. All the SnO2/rGO composites exhibited significantly increased specific capacitance in comparison to the pure SnO2. The SnO2/rGO with the highest GtO content showed capacitance ~ 200 F.g-1 that was comparable to that of the pure rGO. The result was related to the small particles size of SnO2 and their distribution between the rGO sheets.