Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide Supported Flower-like Bismuth Subcarbonates Microsphere (Bi2O2CO3-RGO) for Supercapacitor Application

[Display omitted] •A flower-like Bi2O2CO3/RGO composite for pseudocapacitor energy storage application was reported first time.•RGO nanosheets supported on Bi2O2CO3 is a better pseudocapacitive electrode materials compared with pristine Bi2O2CO3.•The Bi2O2CO3 microsphere with higher RGO loading exhibits the outstanding specificcapacitance value (860F/g). In this study, flower-like Bi2O2CO3 microsphere and Bi2O2CO3/RGO-(X) [X=50, 75, and 100mg of RGO] pseudocapacitor electrode materials have been successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The pseudocapacitor electrodes were characterized by FE-SEM, HR-TEM, XRD, FT-IR, and TGA measurements. Electrochemical performance for pseudo capacitive properties of pure Bi2O2CO3 and Bi2O2CO3/RGO-(X) composites has been further tested by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results show that the Bi2O2CO3 and Bi2O2CO3/RGO-(X) electrodes exhibited the specific capacitance value of 96, 260, 478, and 860Fg−1, respectively, at a scan rate of 5mVs−1. Moreover, the cyclic performance for Bi2O2CO3/RGO-100 composite (96% capacity retention at 20mVs−1) is superior to that of pure Bi2O2CO3 (58% capacity retention at 20mVs−1). Besides, the Bi2O2CO3/RGO-100 exhibited a high specific capacitance of 375Fg−1at 0.2A/g with enhanced rate capability (342.2Fg−1 at 5A/g) and cyclic stability (84.5% retention after 1000 cycles at 5A/g). Such a fabrication of hybrid nanocomposite electrode (Bi2O2CO3/RGO-100) may bring the development of excellent pseudocapacitor with superior electrochemical performance.