Plasma-assisted synthesis of pyrrolic-nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide to enhance supercapacitor performance

Abstract Low plasma treatment has been demonstrated to be an efficient approach to introduce defects and to dope graphene. In this study, nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide with a high pyrrolic nitrogen ratio (92.75%) was simply prepared by employing a radio frequency inductively coupled plasma with urea as nitrogen sources (UR-NG). The obtained UR-NG exhibited high specific capacitance, excellent rate performance, and long cycle stability both in the KOH solution and EMIMBF4 ionic liquid due to its high pyrrolic N ratio and large specific surface area. The study results demonstrate that radio frequency inductively coupled plasma can efficiently regulate the doping configuration of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide.