Owing to the increasing power requirements for electric vehicles, tremendous work has been devoted to supercapacitors with high power density, energy density, and rate performance. Electrochemical supercapacitors are attractive because of their better cycling performance and higher power density as compared to Lithium-ion batteries. Graphene, a 2-Dimensional structure of sp2 carbon atoms, has attracted much attention recently. Due to its large surface area, excellent conductivity, and good stability, graphene can be incorporated in the composites materials to enhance the performance.In the present work, graphene composites with functionalized carbon black, polyaniline, and V2O5 have been prepared via facile chemical routes. The schematic illustration of synthetic methods is shown in Figure 1. The resulting composites exhibited improved performance compared to graphene, functionalized carbon black, polyaniline, and V2O5 alone. For instance, the graphene/FCB composite electrode showed a specific capacitance of 168 F/g in aqueous electrolyte (1 M H2SO4) and 137 F/g in organic electrolyte (1.2 M LiBF4) at 1 A/g, much higher than that of graphene (82 F/g and 65 F/g). Graphene/V2O5 composites showed a specific capacitance of 427 F/g at 5 mV/s scan rate, while the capacitance of pure V2O5 is only 274 F/g. Covalently-grafted polyaniline/GO composites possessed a specific capacitance of 387 F/g at 1 A/g and longer cycle life than pure polyaniline. The excellent performance suggests a good synergistic effect between graphene and supporting materials. Figure 1. <img src='https://acs-archive-assets2.s3.amazonaws.com/239nm/uploads/3972_monomersmallpicture.jpg' alt='' />

Graphene-based composites as electrochemical supercapacitors

246th National Meeting (2013)

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