Highly Conductive and Porous Activated Reduced Graphene Oxide Films for High-Power Supercapacitors

Abstract

We present a novel method to prepare highly conductive, free-standing, and flexible porous carbon thin films by chemical activation of reduced graphene oxide paper. These flexible carbon thin films possess a very high specific surface area of 2400 m² g^–1 with a high in-plane electrical conductivity of 5880 S m^–1. This is the highest specific surface area for a free-standing carbon film reported to date. A two-electrode supercapacitor using these carbon films as electrodes demonstrated an excellent high-frequency response, an extremely low equivalent series resistance on the order of 0.1 ohm, and a high-power delivery of about 500 kW kg^–1. While higher frequency and power values for graphene materials have been reported, these are the highest values achieved while simultaneously maintaining excellent specific capacitances and energy densities of 120 F g^–1 and 26 W h kg^–1, respectively. In addition, these free-standing thin films provide a route to simplify the electrode-manufacturing process by eliminating conducting additives and binders. The synthetic process is also compatible with existing industrial level KOH activation processes and roll-to-roll thin-film fabrication technologies.