Reduced graphene oxide-carbon nanotube grown on carbon fiber as binder-free electrode for flexible high-performance fiber supercapacitors

• DOI: 10.1016/j.compositesb.2017.02.028
• Publication Date: 2017-02-21T02:30:13Z
• Authors: Chuanyin Xiong; Tiehu Li; Tingkai Zhao; Alei Dang; Hao Li; Xianglin Ji; Wenbo Jin; Shasha Jiao; Yudong Shang; Yonggang Zhang
• Keywords: Chemical vapor deposition; Flexible supercapacitor; Carbon fiber; 02 engineering and technology; Electrophoretic deposition; Carbon nanotubes-reduced graphene oxide; Three-dimensional; 0210 nano-technology; 7. Clean energy

Abstract In this work, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) - carbon nanotubes (CNT) grown on carbon fiber (CF) is fabricated by a combination of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Firstly, CF-GO composite is prepared via EPD. Secondly, the CF-RGO-CNT hybrid is obtained by floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition method for synthesizing CNT on the CF-RGO substrate. The as-prepared three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical hybrid shows strong mechanical stability and high flexibility at various bending angles. Furthermore, the hybrid is characterized by scanning electron microscope, X-ray Diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, and its supercapacitor properties are also tested. The electrochemical measurements display a higher specific capacitance of 203 F g−1, 4 times higher than that of pure CF. Importantly, the hybrid shows high electrochemical stability at various bending angles, and can be directly served as flexible electrode with binder-free for high-performance supercapacitors. All these attractive results indicate that the as-prepared 3D hybrid is a promising candidate for flexible supercapacitor applications.