Synthesis of multilayered structure of nano-dimensional silica glass/reduced graphene oxide for advanced electrochemical applications

During the past few years, intensive research has been carried out to design new functional materials for superior electrochemical applications. Due to low storage capacity and low charge transport, silica based glasses have not yet been investigated for their supercapacitive behavior. Therefore, in the present study, a multilayered structure of silica-based nanoglass and reduced graphene oxide has been designed to remarkably enhance the specific capacitance by exploiting the porosity, large surface area, sufficient dangling bonds in the nanoglass and high electrical conductivity of rGO. The charge transport in the composite structure is also investigated to understand the electrochemical properties. It is found that Simmons tunneling or direct tunneling is the dominant mechanism of charge conduction between the graphene layers via the potential barrier of silica nanoglass phase. We believe that this study will open up a new area in the design of glass-based two-dimensional nanocomposites for superior supercapacitor applications.