Issue 14, 2015

Nitrogen-doped porous graphene–activated carbon composite derived from “bucky gels” for supercapacitors

Abstract

A simple method has been developed to prepare nitrogen-doped porous graphene–activated carbon (AC) composites as high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitors. The graphene-based “bucky gels”, prepared by simple mixing and grinding of graphene in ionic liquids (ILs), are carbonized to form an “untractable char” intermediate product, and finally converted to the nitrogen-doped porous graphene–AC composite by chemical activation using KOH. Results demonstrate that the introduction of graphene sheets into the composite not only effectively enhance the specific surface area and conductivity of graphene–AC composite, but also enlarge the pore size in the electrode material compared with pure AC. In addition, the nitrogen-doping can further improve the kinetics for both charge transfer and ion transport throughout the electrode. It's found that the composite has a large specific surface area of 2375.2 m2 g−1, and also contains plenty of mesopores and appreciable nitrogen-doping amount. It exhibits a specific capacitance up to 145 F g−1 at 20 mV s−1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte, and the specific capacitance decreases by only 1.6% after 5000 cycles. This kind of nitrogen-doped composite represents an alternative promising candidate as electrode material for supercapacitors.

Graphical abstract: Nitrogen-doped porous graphene–activated carbon composite derived from “bucky gels” for supercapacitors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Nov 2014
Accepted
07 Jan 2015
First published
07 Jan 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 10739-10745

Nitrogen-doped porous graphene–activated carbon composite derived from “bucky gels” for supercapacitors

C. Zheng, X. F. Zhou, H. L. Cao, G. H. Wang and Z. P. Liu, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 10739 DOI: 10.1039/C4RA13724H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements