Abstract
AbstractThis work developed an improved chemical co-precipitation method for fabricating α-nickel hydroxide (α-Ni(OH)2) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composite materials as electrode material in Ni-Fe battery. The composite was prepared by solvothermal route at temperature 95oC by using Ni(NO3)2 and dispersed graphene oxide (dispersed GO) as precursor. The dispersed GO is prepared by sonication of GO in DI water with dispersibility of 0.22mg/ml. A non-toxic chemical of NaHSO3 was used as reducing chemical to convert GO to RGO. The functional group of GO and RGO were investigate by FT-IR technique. The morphology and crystalline structure of RGO/ α-Ni(OH)2 composites were characteristized by X-ray diffraction and SEM characteristic. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is used to measure wt% of RGO in the composites. The properties of α-nickel hydroxide was prepared without GO with a high surface area of α-Ni(OH)2 about 118 m2/g by BET technique. Preliminary data on electrochemical capacity was also reported through discharge capacity and cycle number. The discharge capacity of the composites were affected significantly by the weight percentage of RGO in composites. The composites RGO/Ni(OH)2 containing 15wt% RGO is shown the lowest discharge capacities (250 mA h/g). The samples contain 8.4% wt of RGO have shown a specific discharge capacity of 307 mA h/g which is better than the other sample.