Nitrogen-doped graphene prepared by pyrolysis of graphene oxide/polyaniline composites as supercapacitor electrodes

•NG was prepared by a facile pyrolysis procedure of PANI/GO composite.•Graphene sheets in NG were uniform covered with carbon nanorods from pyrolytic PANI.•NG10-800 exhibts a high electrochemical performance as an electrode material.

Three polyaniline/graphene oxide (PANI/GO) composites were fabricated by means of an in-situ polymerization of aniline monomers in the presence of graphene oxide (GO). And then, nitrogen-doped graphene was prepared by pyrolysis of the PANI/GO composite. The structures and morphologies of the samples were characterized by using different techniques, and the electrochemical performances of the nitrogen-doped graphene samples were further investigated. When PANI/GO10 (the GO feed content in PANI/GO is 10 wt.%) was used as a precursor, and the pyrolysis temperature is 800 °C, nitrogen content of the as-prepared nitrogen-doped graphene (i.e., NG10-800) is 9.2 at.%. The specific capacitance of NG10-800 is up to 206 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1, indicating an excellent electrochemical performance. After 1000 cycles at a scan rate of 50 mV s−1, the capacitance retention of NG10-800 is about 92.5% of the initial value, suggesting an excellent cycling stability.