Porous graphene paper for supercapacitor applications

Graphene paper shows a great promise for the electrical energy storage. However, the high stability, purity and specific surface area have become stringent requirements for supercapacitor applications. Finding methods to tackle these problems is rather challenging. Here, we develop a facile method to prepare porous graphene papers with a thickness 0.5 mm by a thermal shock to the layer-structure graphene paper self-assembled on Cu foil under nitrogen flowing. The as-prepared porous graphene paper exhibits a large specific capacitance of 100 F g−1 at the scan rate of 100 mV s−1 with high stability and purity without any residual chemical reagents, showing a promising potential for supercapacitor applications. The high electrochemical properties are mainly attributed to the high-specific area and the improved conductivity of the porous graphene paper performed by the multieffect of reducing, cleaving and expanding to the layer-structure graphene paper by high-energy thermal heating during the thermal shock process. This work paves a pathway to the facile preparation of porous graphene paper for supercapacitor applications.