Graphene supercapacitor with both high power and energy density

Abstract

Supercapacitors, based on fast ion transportation, are specialized to provide high power, long stability, and efficient energy storage using highly porous electrode materials. However, their low energy density excludes them from many potential applications that require both high energy density and high power density performances. Using a scalable nanoporous graphene synthesis method involving an annealing process in hydrogen, here we show supercapacitors with highly porous graphene electrodes capable of achieving not only a high power density of 41 kW kg−1 and a Coulombic efficiency of 97.5%, but also a high energy density of 148.75 Wh kg−1. A high specific gravimetric and volumetric capacitance (306.03 F g−1 and 64.27 F cm−3) are demonstrated. The devices can retain almost 100% capacitance after 7000 charging/discharging cycles at a current density of 8 A g−1. The superior performance of supercapacitors is attributed to their ideal pore size, pore uniformity, and good ion accessibility of the synthesized graphene.