Evaluation of 8.0 MeV Carbon (C²⁺) Irradiation Effects on Hydrothermally Synthesized Co₃O₄−CuO−ZnO@GO Electrodes for Supercapacitor Applications

Combination of transition metal oxides and carbon derivatives have received a lot of interest in last two decades for electrochemical energy storage due to their small size and high specific surface area. The effects of carbon ion irradiation on the properties of the electrodes were examined. The structural properties as obtained from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results suggest that irradiation of the nanocomposite enhances the crystallinity of the materials up to the optimal dose of 5.0×10¹⁵ ions/cm². Beyond this dose, there was a reduction in the crystallinity occasioned by distortion and defects in the structure of the material. The morphological studies indicated that the nanocomposites have spherical nanoparticles with some agglomerations. The agglomerations as well the particle sizes reduced with increase in the radiation dosages. The energy bandgaps estimated for the Co₃O₄−CuO−ZnO@GO reduced as energy dosages increases. The highest specific capacitance obtained from cyclic voltammetry (CV) plots at 10 mV/s scan rate and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) were 1950 and 2045 F/g at a radiation dose of 5.0×10¹⁵ ions/cm². Results indicate that carbon ion irradiations, especially low doses enhance the characteristics performance of these electrodes while high doses induce deficiencies and disorder to the Co₃O₄−CuO−ZnO@GO electrodes. These results also indicate that radiation is a useful tool to enhance or damage properties of nanomaterials especially with low energy doses.