Facile synthesis of 3D reduced graphene oxide and its polyaniline composite for super capacitor application

We propose a facile and environmentally-friendly strategy for fabricating three-dimensional (3D) reduced graphene oxide (3D-rGO) porous structure with one step hydrothermal method using glucose as the reducing agent and CaCO3 as the template. The reducing process was accompanied by the self-assembly of two-dimensional graphene sheets into a 3D hydrogel which entrapped CaCO3 particle into the graphene network. After the removal of CaCO3 particle, 3D-rGO with interconnected porous structure was obtained. The 3D-rGO was further composted with PANI nanowire. The structure and the property of 3D-rGO and 3D-rGO/PANI composite have been characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Electrochemical test reveals that the 3D-rGO/PANI has high capacitance performance of 243 F g(-1) at current charge-discharge current density of 1 A g(-1) and an excellent capacity retention rate of 86% after 1000 cycles. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.