Mesoporous Hydrated Graphene Nanoribbon Electrodes for Efficient Supercapacitors: Effect of Nanoribbon Dispersion on Pore Structure

Abstract

Abstract Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), which are narrow and elongated strips of graphene, enable the formation of a more interconnected pore structure than two-dimensional graphenes. In this work, hydrated GNR sheets with different internal pore structures were prepared from chemically reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons with different reduction durations. The electrochemical properties of the hydrated GNR electrodes were determined by the mesoporous structure including pore interconnectivity, which depends on the reduction time. The disorderly-structured GNR electrode showed an excellent capacitance retention (71% at 100 A/g compared to that at 0.1 A/g) and high energy and power densities of 5.54 Wh/kg and 313 kW/kg, respectively, which are superior to those of a reduced graphene oxide electrode fabricated under the same conditions. These results clearly indicate that a disordered internal structure with interconnected mesopores in hydrated GNR sheets effectively improves the energy and power densities and charge-discharge capability.