Preparation of flexible and free-standing graphene-based current collector via a new and facile self-assembly approach: Leading to a high performance porous graphene/polyaniline supercapacitor

Flexible all-solid-state supercapacitors are promising electronic devices have been developed in the past decade. Recent efforts to develop such systems are as to construction of free standing electrodes with high specific capacitance. Among these developments, construction of carbon-based current collectors, with high surface areas and good mechanical properties via a facile and economic way, has been taken a great deal of attention. In this study, porous graphene were used as current collector for placement of the carbon fibers functionalized with polyaniline, to prepare a free-standing supercapacitor electrode through a new and facile method. This method begins through blending of the materials in acetone, as the solvent, followed by addition of dilute solution of poly(vinyl alcohol) as the binder of all components. This new strategy can be used as a scalable method to prepare flexible graphene-based current collectors without any loss in their conductivity due to their bending. Maximum specific capacitance of the electrode was obtained 1.42 F/cm2 (710 F/g) at current density of 4 mA/cm2 (2 A/g). In addition, all-solid-state supercapacitor was shown areal specific capacitance and energy density of 440 mF/cm2 and 0.613 mWh/cm3, respectively.