Synthesis of n-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide from Coconut Shell as Supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors have been fabricated from reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based on coconut shell. The production of rGO was started from carbonizing coconut shell at 100 – 140°C of temperature, then sieving of 200 mesh and calcinating at 400°C for 5 hours. The peaks of XRD pattern had indicated rGO phase. Supercapacitor electrodes were fabricated from two different sources of nitrogen for doping. Firstly, the electrode was fabricated from the mixing of the rGO coconut shell, HCl, glucose, FeCl3 bubbled with nitrogen gas (N2). Secondly, it was fabricated from the same starting materials; however, the nitrogen was from the ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH). Cyclic voltammetric characterization indicates that nitrogen atom originating from NH4OH has been more effective to be inserted in rGO for increasing the capacitance of the fabricated supercapacitors.