Partially Exfoliated Graphite Paper as Free‐Standing Electrode for Supercapacitors

Abstract

Abstract Free standing electrodes have grabbed attention among the researchers around the globe due to its ease of fabrication, scale‐up and flexibility for stack development. In the present communication, we have described a novel approach to improve the areal capacitance of graphite fiber paper (GP) from 4.5 ×10 −3 F cm −2 to 0.677 F cm −2 by surface modification. Surface functionalised graphite paper (Oxd‐GP) and its chemically reduced counterpart (Red‐GP) are explored as electrode materials for supercapacitors. The materials synthesized are structurally characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Energy dispersive analysis of X‐rays (EDAX) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The electrochemical performance of the electrodes is assessed using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge‐discharge (GC) analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) where both Oxd‐GP and Red‐GP exhibit appreciable areal capacitance while Red‐GP shows excellent cycle life over 2600 cycles. Red‐GP showed an increment in capacitance over 1000 cycles while attaining stability. This work suggests that modified graphite paper can be a low‐cost and free‐standing electrode for high performance energy storage devices.