Synthesis of Zinc Oxide nano bars incorporated with activated Carbon (ZnO NBs/AC) nanocomposites for high specific capacitance value

In this present work, synthesize Zinc Oxide Nanobars (ZnO NBs) and Activated carbon (ZnO NBs/AC) nanocomposites using a simple sol–gel technique. The prepared samples were studied with various characterization techniques to determine the structure’s structural, optical, and electrical properties, including X-ray diffraction, UV-visible, HR-SEM, FTIR, and cyclic voltammetry. The XRD results revealed that the intensities of all crystal planes in bare ZnO NBs are higher than in ZnO NBs/AC composites. The average crystallite size of ZnO NBs and their composite was 10 and 30 nm, respectively. The band gap of the ZnO NBs and ZnO NBs/AC nanocomposite was calculated to be 3.3 eV and 2.8 eV. HR-SEM analysis shows the ZnO NBs are hexagonal, whereas the ZnO NBs/AC composite contains hexagonal ZnO NBs incorporated in AC. The FTIR analysis found the functional groups of ZnONBs and ZnO NBs/AC nanocomposites. The specific capacitance of ZnO NBs/AC was found to be six times higher than that of pure ZnO NBs, as revealed by cyclic voltammetry-based electrochemical analysis.