Prussian blue-nitrogen-doped graphene nanocomposite as hybrid electrode for energy storage applications

- Novel and inexpensive Prussian blue-N-graphene composite for hybrid battery- supercapacitor.
- Prussian blue leads to a significant increase of the capacity.
- Prussian blue leads to enhancement of cycling stability of N-graphene.

Water-soluble Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs) supported on nitrogen-doped graphene (N-graphene) with high dispersion was fabricated for high performance energy storage hybrid electrodes. An efficient loading of the PB NPs and nitrogen doping of graphene were achieved. The structure and morphology of the composite was determined by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. The energy storage performance was assessed by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge techniques. The nanocomposite was fabricated as a hybrid battery-supercapacitor electrode and exhibited excellent performance with the highest capacity of 660 C g−1 at 1 A g−1, which was higher than pure PB NPs and N-graphene electrodes. Moreover, the synergistic effect of N-graphene and the PB NPs prevented the N-graphene from shrinking and swelling and increased the cycle stability to 84.7% retention after 1500 cycles at 6 A g−1, compared to the pure N-graphene.