Chemical Synthesis of Gadolinium Oxide Mediated Electrodes for Supercapacitor Application: Effect of Contact Angle

Abstract

Thin films of gadolinium oxide and gadolinium oxide-based electrodes were deposited on a stainless steel substrate employing the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) study showed the formation of amorphous material on a substrate and the composition of the material was confirmed by the energy dispersive study (EDS). The water contact angle measurement showed the super-hydrophobic surface of the deposited material. The morphology showed gadolinium oxide resembled finger chip-type morphology while fungus-like and crocodile-back-like morphologies were observed for gadolinium oxide-copper oxide and gadolinium oxide-activated carbon (AC) composite correspondingly. The cyclic voltammetric measurement for supercapacitor application was carried out in a 0.2 M non-aqueous KCl electrolyte. It designated that the gadolinium oxide electrode with 94.22° contact angle had 106.25 F·g^-1 specific capacitance. The super capacitance of electrodes was found to be depending on the contact angle concerning composition and morphology. The gadolinium oxide-copper oxide having 156.70° water contact angle possessed a specific capacitance of 52.66 F·g^-1 while the gadolinium oxide-AC composite electrode carried 76.20 F·g^-1 specific capacitance for 157.49° contact angle.