Graphene Hydrogels Implanted onto Carbon Cloth for Polypyrrole Electrodeposition toward High-Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes

Abstract

The close integration of an active layer with a current collector is of significance for the properties of supercapacitor electrodes. Herein, we propose a novel and feasible strategy where graphene hydrogels are implanted onto the carbon cloth on which polypyrrole is electrodeposited to obtain specially constructed electrodes. Particularly, the graphene oxide colloid drop-coated on the current collector undergoes a mild hydrothermal reduction to form a graphene hydrogel film implanted onto the carbon cloth. The integrated graphene/carbon cloth film with a porous graphene framework effectively contributes to the polypyrrole loading and endows the as-prepared electrode with enhanced electrochemical properties. The optimized electrode presents superb specific capacitances (522.3 F g–1 at 0.7 A g–1, 1462.5 mF cm–2 at 2 mA cm–2), with satisfactory rate capability, cycling lifetime, and bending performance. The corresponding device can achieve a desirable energy density (88.67 μWh cm–2, 15.8 Wh kg–1) and power density (14.65 mW cm–2, 2.64 kW kg–1). The design method reported in this paper could provide a new pathway toward constructing high-performing electrodes based on graphene materials.