Laser Cutting Coupled with Electro-Exfoliation to Prepare Versatile Planar Graphene Electrodes for Energy Storage
The study of planar energy storage devices, characterized by low-cost, high capacity, and satisfactory flexibility, is becoming a valuable research hotspot. Graphene, monolayer sp<sup>2</sup> hybrid carbon atoms with a large surface area, always acts as its active component, yet there is...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-03-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/6/5599 |
| Summary: | The study of planar energy storage devices, characterized by low-cost, high capacity, and satisfactory flexibility, is becoming a valuable research hotspot. Graphene, monolayer sp<sup>2</sup> hybrid carbon atoms with a large surface area, always acts as its active component, yet there is a tension between its high conductivity and ease of implementation. Although the difficult-to-assemble graphene can easily achieve planar assemblies in its highly oxidized form (GO), the undesirable conductivity, even after proper reduction, still restricts its further applications. Here, a facile “Top-down” method has been proposed to prepare the graphene planar electrode via in situ electro-exfoliation of graphite supported on a piece of laser-cutting patterned scotch tape. Detailed characterizations have been performed to study its physiochemical property evolution during electro-exfoliation. The obtained flexible graphene planar electrodes show decent energy storage performance, e.g., 40.8 mF cm<sup>−2</sup> at a current density of 0.5 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> and an 81% capacity retention at a current density of 8 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> for the optimized sample G-240. Their high conductivity also makes it possible to couple them with other redox-active materials through electrodeposition to improve their performance, e.g., ferrocene-functionalized mesoporous silica film (Fc-MS), MnO<sub>2</sub>, and polyaniline (PANI). The highest capacity was achieved with the PANI functionalized sample, which achieved a 22-fold capacity increase. In a word, the versatility, practicality, and adaptability of the protocol to prepare the planar graphene electrode proposed in this work make it a potential candidate to meet the continuously growing energy storage demands. |
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| ISSN: | 1661-6596 1422-0067 |