A new strategy for the preparation of flexible macroscopic graphene fibers as supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

Graphene fibers (G-Fs) have attracted consistent attention due to the fascinating properties of graphene materials and their promising applications in supercapacitors, wearable electronics, smart textiles, sensors, and so on. In this research, flexible macroscopic graphene oxide fibers (GO-Fs) and G-Fs are prepared by dry spinning with high temperature airflow. The high temperature airflow induces immediate self-assembly of graphene oxide nano-sheets into dried state GO-Fs. Compared to thermal reduction, chemical reduction contributes to maintaining the flexibility and strong intensity of G-Fs. After chemical reduction, the produced G-Fs exhibit excellent mechanical properties. The tensile strength is about 127.5MPa and the elongation at break reaches up to 14.8%, one order of magnitude greater than that of previously reported neat graphene nanoribbon fibers. Moreover, G-F is directly used as supercapacitor electrode and the specific capacitance is 78.8F/m2 at the current of 20μA, displaying extraordinary capacitance and outstanding stability and indicating promising use as flexible supercapacitor.