Construction of hierarchical porous graphene–carbon nanotubes hybrid with high surface area for high performance supercapacitor applications

• DOI: 10.1007/s10008-016-3403-4
• Publication Date: 2016-09-28T03:09:40Z
• Authors: Dewei Wang; Guoli Fang; Qian Zheng; Guihong Geng; Jinfu Ma
• Keywords: Carbon fibers; Specific surface area

Unlike activated carbon, graphene sheets are lack of ion pathways on their basal planes and prone to agglomerate or restack unfortunately for their strong π − π interactions between neighboring sheets. All of which will pose significant obstacles for its application in high performance supercapacitors. Herein, we report a simple and fast strategy for the scalable synthesis of hierarchical honeycomb-like porous graphene–carbon nanotubes hybrid (PGCTs) through a simple laser induced self-propagating reaction process and subsequent activation with low amount of KOH without any template. Benefiting from properly integration of large surface area, hierarchical pore structures, in-plane nanopores and CNTs nanospacers, the as-obtained PGCTs based symmetrical supercapacitor exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance with super capacitance, excellent rate capability, and desirable cyclability.