Application of Atmospheric-Pressure-Plasma-Jet Modified Flexible Graphite Sheets in Reduced-Graphene-Oxide/Polyaniline Supercapacitors.

Yu-Chuan Hao,Ing-Song Yu,Cheng-Chen Yang,Hung-Hua Chien,Nurzal Nurzal,Chen-Yu Liao,Jian-Zhang Chen,Fei-Hong Kuok

doi:10.3390/polym12061228

Yu-Chuan Hao, Ing-Song Yu + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12061228

Copy DOI

Abstract

In this study, flexible and low-cost graphite sheets modified by atmospheric pressure plasma jet are applied to reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline supercapacitors. Surface treatment by atmospheric pressure plasma jet can make the hydrophobic surface of graphite into a hydrophilic surface and improve the adhesion of the screen-printed reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline on the graphite sheets. After the fabrication of reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline supercapacitors with polyvinyl alcohol/H2SO4 gel electrolyte, pseudo-capacitance and electrical double capacitance can be clearly identified by the measurement of cyclic voltammetry. The fabricated supercapacitor exhibits specific capacitance value of 227.32 F/g and areal capacitance value of 28.37 mF/cm2 with a potential scan rate of 2 mV/s. Meanwhile, the capacitance retention rate can reach 86.9% after 1000-cycle cyclic voltammetry test. A light-emitting diode can be lit by the fabricated reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline supercapacitors, which confirms that the supercapacitors function well and can potentially be used in a circuit.

Highlights

A conducting polymer is an organic polymer that can be used as a semiconductor or a conductor, which was discovered in 1977
Combining the advantages of these materials and techniques for the fabrication of supercapacitors, in this report, we propose the flexible graphite sheet modified by atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) before the screen-printing process with reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline
After the treatment of APPJ, the wettability could be significantly enhanced and the water droplet penetrated into the graphite sheet completely

Summary

Introduction

A conducting polymer is an organic polymer that can be used as a semiconductor or a conductor, which was discovered in 1977. Polyaniline (PANI) has advantages of high electrical conductivity, good specific capacitance, easy to synthesize, lower cost, and high chemical stability for versatile applications [2,3]. PANI has been widely applied for the energy storage devices, either as a conducting material or as an electroactive agent due to the tunable pseudocapacitive performance and its various oxidation states, especially employed in supercapacitors [4]. Their value of supercapacitance basically comes from the contribution of electrical double layer capacitance (EDLC) and/or Faradaic capacitance. Faradaic capacitance normally exists in metal oxides and conductive polymers [6,7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion