Hydrothermal synthesis of quantum dots dispersed on conjugated polymer as an efficient electrodes for highly stable hybrid supercapacitors

Abstract

Hydrothermal synthesis of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) composited with conjugated polymer were investigated the high specific capacitance and cyclic stability of supercapacitor. The situ chemical polymerization method was employed to synthesize the polypyrrole - graphene quantum dots (PPY-GQDs) composite at different concentrations of GQDs. The size, morphology and structural phase of the PPY- GQDs composites was studied by using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) techniques respectively. The optical and electrochemical measurements were carried out by using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV--Vis) Absorption spectroscopy, Photoluminescence Spectroscopy (PL) and electrochemical work station. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) results show enhanced current density and area of CV loop with increasing scan rate and the concentration of GQDs. The Supercapacitor was fabricated by two electrodes owns a high energy density 67.8 Wh/kg and 93 Wh/kg at a power density of 1210 W/kg and 1430 W/kg for PGC1 and PGC3 composites. The highest specific capacitance values 467.32 and 647.54F/g are achieved by PGC1 and PGC3 composite compare to pure PPY. The PPY-GQDs composites achieved excellent cycle stability until the 2000 cycle. Thus, it demonstrates that GQDs is playing a unique and important role in improving the performance of a hybrid supercapacitor device.