Boosting supercapacitor performance of carbon fibres using electrochemically reduced graphene oxide additivesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Current-time curve for the electrochemical deposition process (Fig. S1); Raman and XPS spectra of GO and ERGO (Fig. S2 and S3); the Nyquist plot of the impedance of an ERGO@CF electrode (Fig. S4) and length specific capacitance with respect to current density (Fig. S5). See DOI: 10.1039/c3cp54017k

• Main Authors: Cao, Yachang, Zhu, Miao, Li, Peixu, Zhang, Rujing, Li, Xinming, Gong, Qianming, Wang, Kunling, Zhong, Minlin, Wu, Dehai, Lin, Feng, Zhu, Hongwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1463-9076; 1463-9084
• DOI: 10.1039/c3cp54017k

Modifying conventional materials with new recipes represents a straightforward yet efficient way to realize large-scale applications of new materials. Electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) coated carbon fibres (CFs), prepared as fibre-like supercapacitor electrodes, exhibited excellent electrochemical energy storage performance. Upon addition of only a small amount (∼1 wt%) of ERGO, the hybrid fibres showed superior electrochemical capacitances (nearly three orders of magnitude enhanced) compared to pure CFs in both aqueous and gel electrolytes. Meanwhile, the energy density did not decrease notably as the power density increased. The superior capacitive performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect between wrinkled and porous ERGO sheets and highly conductive CFs. This fibre electrode material also offered advantages such as easy operation, mass production capability, mechanical flexibility and robustness, and could have an impact on a wide variety of potential applications in energy and electronic fields. Electrochemically reduced graphene oxide coated carbon fibres, prepared as fibre-like supercapacitor electrodes, exhibited excellent electrochemical energy storage performance.