Facile synthesis of 3D reduced graphene oxide and its polyaniline composite for super capacitor application

•A facile strategy for fabricating 3D reduced graphene oxide 3D-rGO is proposed.•3D-rGO with porous structure was obtained through one step hydrothermal method.•Glucose is the reducing agent, and CaCO3 is the template.•3D-rGO/PANI nanowire composite was prepared by in situ dilute polymerization.•3D-rGO/PANI exhibits high capacitance and good cycling stability.

We propose a facile and environmentally-friendly strategy for fabricating three-dimensional (3D) reduced graphene oxide (3D-rGO) porous structure with one step hydrothermal method using glucose as the reducing agent and CaCO3 as the template. The reducing process was accompanied by the self-assembly of two-dimensional graphene sheets into a 3D hydrogel which entrapped CaCO3 particle into the graphene network. After the removal of CaCO3 particle, 3D-rGO with interconnected porous structure was obtained. The 3D-rGO was further composted with PANI nanowire. The structure and the property of 3D-rGO and 3D-rGO/PANI composite have been characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Electrochemical test reveals that the 3D-rGO/PANI has high capacitance performance of 243 F g−1 at current charge–discharge current density of 1 A g−1 and an excellent capacity retention rate of 86% after 1000 cycles.

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