Preparation of hybrid paper electrode based on hexagonal boron nitride integrated graphene nanocomposite for free-standing flexible supercapacitors

Flexible energy storage devices have received great interest due to the increasing demand for wearable and flexible electronic devices with high-power energy sources. Herein, a novel hybrid flexible hexagonal boron nitride integrated graphene paper (BN/GrP) is fabricated from 2D hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanosheets integrated with graphene sheets dispersion via a simple vacuum filtration method. FE-SEM indicated that layered graphene nanosheets tightly confined with h-BN nanosheets. Further, the Raman spectroscopy confirmed successful integration of BN with graphene. As-prepared BN/GrP free-standing flexible conductive paper showed high electrical conductivity of 5.36 x 10(4) S m(-1) with the sheet resistance of 8.87 omega sq(-1). However, after 1000 continuous bending cycles, the BN/GrP sheet resistance increased just about 8.7% which indicated good flexibility of the paper. Furthermore, as-prepared BN/GrP showed excellent specific capacitance of 321.95 F g(-1) at current density of 0.5 A g(-1). In addition, the power and energy densities were obtained as 3588.3 W kg(-1), and 44.7 W h kg(-1), respectively. The stability of the prepared flexible electrode was tested in galvanostatic charge/discharge cycles, where the results showed the 96.3% retention even after 6000 cycles. These results exhibited that the proposed BN/GrP may be useful to prepare flexible energy-storage systems.

Automated summary

A novel hybrid flexible hexagonal boron nitride integrated graphene paper (BN/GrP) with high electrical conductivity and excellent flexibility was successfully fabricated via a simple vacuum filtration method. The paper showed only about 8.7% increase in sheet resistance after 1000 continuous bending cycles, demonstrating good flexibility and stability. Additionally, the BN/GrP exhibited excellent specific capacitance and high power and energy densities, making it a promising candidate for flexible energy-storage systems.