Enhanced supercapacitance of activated vertical graphene nanosheets in hybrid electrolyte

Supercapacitors are becoming the workhorse for emerging energy storage applications due to their higher power density and superior cycle life compared to conventional batteries. The performance of supercapacitors depends on the electrode material, type of electrolyte, and interaction between them. Owing to the beneficial interconnected porous structure with multiple conducting channels, vertical graphene nanosheets (VGN) have proved to be leading supercapacitor electrode materials. Herein, we demonstrate a novel approach based on the combination of surface activation and a new organo-aqueous hybrid electrolyte, tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate in H2SO4, to achieve significant enhancement in supercapacitor performance of VGN. As-synthesized VGN exhibits an excellent supercapacitance of 0.64 mF/cm(2) in H2SO4. However, identification of a novel electrolyte for performance enhancement is the subject of current research. The present manuscript demonstrates the potential of the hybrid electrolyte in enhancing the areal capacitance (1.99 mF/cm(2)) with excellent retention (only 5.4% loss after 5000 cycles) and Coulombic efficiency (93.1%). In addition, a five-fold enhancement in the capacitance of VGNs (0.64 to 3.31 mF/cm(2)) with a reduced internal resistance is achieved by the combination of KOH activation and the hybrid electrolyte. Published by AIP Publishing.