Solvothermal synthesis and electrochemical properties of 3D flower-like iron phthalocyanine hierarchical nanostructure

In the present work, a highly uniform three-dimensional flower-like 2,9,16,23-tetra-nitrophthalocyanine iron (TNFePc) hierarchical nanostructure has been successfully obtained by a facile ethylene glycol solvothermal synthetic route. The as-obtained product was characterized by mass spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), IR spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis. The results showed that the flower-like hierarchical nanostructure was made up of numerous two-dimensional nanoplates with a thickness of about 50 nm. Electrochemical measurements revealed that the TNFePc hierarchical nanostructure exhibited excellent capacitance behavior, which could be ascribed to the ultrahigh surface area and large pore volume. Finally, a possible mechanism for the formation of three-dimensional flower-like TNFePc was suggested. A three-dimensional flower-like TNFePc hierarchical nanostructure is successfully fabricated by a facile solvothermal synthetic route, and shows high capacitive behavior as an electrode material for supercapacitors.