Enhancing pseudocapacitive properties of cobalt oxide hierarchical nanostructures via iron doping

Through co-precipitation and post-heat processing, nanostructured Fe-doped Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were developed. Using the SEM, XRD, BET, FTIR, TGA/DTA, UV–Vis, and techniques were examined. The XRD analysis presented that Co3O4 and Co3O4 nanoparticles that had been doped with 0.25 M Fe formed single cubic phase Co3O4 NPs with average crystallite sizes of 19.37 nm and 14.09 nm, respectively. The as prepared NPs have porous architectures via SEM analyses. The BET surface areas of Co3O4 and 0.25 M Fe-doped Co3O4 NPs were 53.06 m2/g and 351.56 m2/g, respectively. Co3O4 NPs have a band gap energy of 2.96 eV and an extra sub-band gap energy of 1.95 eV. Fe-doped Co3O4 NPs were also found to have band gap energies between 2.54 and 1.46 eV. FTIR spectroscopy was used to determine whether M–O bonds (M = Co, Fe) were present. The doping impact of iron results in the doped Co3O4 samples having better thermal characteristics. The highest specific capacitance was achieved using 0.25 M Fe-doped Co3O4 NPs at 5 mV/s, which corresponding to 588.5 F/g via CV analysis. Additionally, 0.25 M Fe-doped Co3O4 NPs had energy and power densities of 9.17 W h/kg and 472.1 W/kg, correspondingly.