Abstract
In this work, a novel activated carbon containing graphene composite was developed using a fast, simple, and green ultrasonic-assisted method. Graphene is more likely a framework which provides support for activated carbon (AC) particles to form hierarchical microstructure of carbon composite. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurement, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectra analysis, XRD, and XPS were used to analyze the morphology and surface structure of the composite. The electrochemical properties of the supercapacitor electrode based on the as-prepared carbon composite were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), charge/discharge, and cycling performance measurements. It exhibited better electrochemical performance including higher specific capacitance (284 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1), better rate behavior (70.7% retention), and more stable cycling performance (no capacitance fading even after 2000 cycles). It is easier for us to find that the composite produced by our method was superior to pristine AC in terms of electrochemical performance due to the unique conductive network between graphene and AC.
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Acknowledgements
We are particularly grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21471163 and 51674292), Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Hunan (2016JJ1023), the Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Plan Project, China (No. 2016TP1007) and Project of Innovation-driven Plan in Central South University (2016CX007).
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Zhi-Hang Wang and Jia-Ying Yang contributed equally to this work.
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Wang, ZH., Yang, JY., Wu, XW. et al. Enhanced electrochemical performance of porous activated carbon by forming composite with graphene as high-performance supercapacitor electrode material. J Nanopart Res 19, 77 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-3778-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-3778-x