Structural, Morphological and Electrochemical Properties of Gd doped Fe3O4 Nanoparticles for Supercapacitor Applications

In this study, Fe3O4 and gadolinium-doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized using the hydrothermal method. The impact of doping on the structural, morphological and optical properties of Gd-Fe3O4 was investigated. The XRD analysis indicated that the synthesized samples had a spinel cubic structure and no other secondary phase was detected at Gd-Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The FTIR studies demonstrate the presence of characteristic peaks associated with tetrahedral and octahedral vibrations, which support the existence of spinel structure. The nanoscopic phase of the particles size was confirmed by the histogram analysis derived from FESEM images, which ranges from 58 to 62 nm. EDAX analysis was employed to ascertain the distribution of Gd in the Gd-Fe3O4 sample. The optical investigations indicate that the indirect bandgaps decrease from 3.8 to 3.6 eV. Cyclic voltammetry revealed the pseudocapacitive behavior of the synthesized materials, with the Gd-Fe3O4 electrode exhibiting a significantly higher specific capacitance (692 F g–1) compared to the Fe3O4 electrode (295 F g–1).