Supercapacitors Based on Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Graphene Aerogels with Periodic Macropores

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Cheng Zhu ; Tianyu Liu ; Fang Qian ; T. Yong-Jin Han ; Eric B. Duoss ; Joshua D. Kuntz ; Christopher M. Spadaccini ; Marcus A. Worsley ; Yat Li
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：June 8, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：16
• 期：6
• 页码：3448-3456
• 全文大小：614K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

Graphene is an atomically thin, two-dimensional (2D) carbon material that offers a unique combination of low density, exceptional mechanical properties, thermal stability, large surface area, and excellent electrical conductivity. Recent progress has resulted in macro-assemblies of graphene, such as bulk graphene aerogels for a variety of applications. However, these three-dimensional (3D) graphenes exhibit physicochemical property attenuation compared to their 2D building blocks because of one-fold composition and tortuous, stochastic porous networks. These limitations can be offset by developing a graphene composite material with an engineered porous architecture. Here, we report the fabrication of 3D periodic graphene composite aerogel microlattices for supercapacitor applications, via a 3D printing technique known as direct-ink writing. The key factor in developing these novel aerogels is creating an extrudable graphene oxide-based composite ink and modifying the 3D printing method to accommodate aerogel processing. The 3D-printed graphene composite aerogel (3D-GCA) electrodes are lightweight, highly conductive, and exhibit excellent electrochemical properties. In particular, the supercapacitors using these 3D-GCA electrodes with thicknesses on the order of millimeters display exceptional capacitive retention (ca. 90% from 0.5 to 10 A·g^–1) and power densities (>4 kW·kg^–1) that equal or exceed those of reported devices made with electrodes 10–100 times thinner. This work provides an example of how 3D-printed materials, such as graphene aerogels, can significantly expand the design space for fabricating high-performance and fully integrable energy storage devices optimized for a broad range of applications.