Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Chemistry) / Supercapacitors, also known as ultracapacitors or electrochemical capacitors, are considered
one of the most important subjects concerning electricity or energy storage which has proven
to be problematic for South Africa. In this work, graphene oxide (GO) was supported with
platinum, silver and copper nanoparticles anchored with dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid
(DBSA) doped polyaniline (PANI) to form nanocomposites. Their properties were
investigated with different characterization techniques. The high resolution transmission
electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed GO's nanosheets to be light, flat, transparent and
appeared to be larger than 1.5 ?m in thickness. This was also confirmed by high resolution
scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM) with smooth surfaces and wrinkled edges observed
with the energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) confirming the presence of the functional
groups such as carbon and oxygen. The HRTEM analysis of decorated GO with platinum,
silver and copper nanoparticles (NPs) revealed small and uniformly dispersed NPs on the
surface of GO with mean particle sizes of 2.3 ± 0.2 nm, 2.6 ± 0.3 nm and 3.5 ± 0.5 nm
respectively and the surface of GO showed increasing roughness as observed in HRSEM
micrographs. The X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XRF) and EDX confirmed the presence of
the nanoparticles on the surface of GO as platinum, silver and copper which appeared in
abundance in each spectra. Anchoring the GO with DBSA doped PANI revealed that single
GO sheets were embedded into the polymer latex, which caused the DBSA-PANI particles to
become adsorbed on their surfaces. This process then appeared as dark regions in the
HRTEM images. Morphological studies by HRSEM also supported that single GO sheets
were embedded into the polymer latex as composite formation appeared aggregated and as
bounded particles with smooth and toothed edges.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6251 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Dywili, Nomxolisi Ruth |
| Contributors | Iwuoha, Emmanuel I. |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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