NaCl multistage-recrystallization-induced formation of 3D micro-structured ribbon-like graphene based films for high performance flexible/transparent supercapacitors

Abstract

Individual graphene ribbons, which fully exploit the large surface area of graphene sheets, have been fabricated. Constructing these unique structures into efficient macroscopic functional architectures is an important and challenging step towards practical applications. Here, we produce micro-structured interconnected ribbon-like graphene sheets (MRGs), which were induced by the multistage-recrystallization of NaCl templates in a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) system. The MRGs along different directions hang in polygonal graphene walls, which connect with each other forming a three dimensional (3D) transparent and self-supporting graphene film (MRG-GF). The MRG-GF with a large surface area, enhanced flexibility and fast ion/electron transport pathways exhibits improved capacitance (4.88 mF cm⁻²) and super-long cycle life with good cycling stability (capacitance retention was ∼95.5% after 20 000 cycles). Herein, we provide a novel approach for controlled synthesis of graphene ribbons, and graphene ribbon-based functional structures and composites.