Facile fabrication of flexible graphene/porous carbon microsphere hybrid films and their application in supercapacitors

Abstract

Graphene/porous carbon microsphere hybrid films were fabricated by vacuum filtration of graphene oxide nanosheets and porous carbon microspheres, followed by reduction, leavening and compressing. The as-prepared hybrid films were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and four-point probe measurements. After reduction and leavening, the leavened foam film displayed a moderate capacitive performance (183 F g⁻¹ at 0.2 A g⁻¹) in KOH aqueous solution. Additionally, over 112.1% of the initial capacitance was retained after repeating the cyclic voltammetry test for 1000 cycles. After compressing, the flexible thin film had a moderate capacitive performance of 144 F g⁻¹ at 0.2 A g⁻¹ for a single electrode and over 99.7% of the initial capacitance. Moreover, the thin film had good capacitive behaviour retainability after multiple cycles of excessive bending experiments.