Construction of three-dimensional graphene like carbon on carbon fibers and loading of polyaniline for high performance asymmetric supercapacitor

Abstract Integrated three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical carbons are of particular interest to supercapacitors since they are good matrix for supporting active materials. Hereby, we have developed a simple strategy to construct 3D graphene like thin carbon sheets on carbon fiber paper (3DGC-CFP) using a template method according to the presence of glucose at high temperature. The 3DGC-CFP exhibits high surface area, good conductivity and good mechanical property, and could bear compression, which could enhance the performance of active materials. After coating of polyaniline (PANI), 3DGC/PANI-CFP has been fabricated, which shows a high specific capacitance of 1013 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and good cycling stability. Furthermore, an asymmetric supercapacitor has been assembled using 3DGC/PANI-CFP and activated carbons (AC). It exhibits a high cell specific capacitance of 151.8 F g−1 within 1.6 V according to a specific energy of 54 Wh kg−1. A simple model has been developed to reveal the influence of mass ratio between negatvie and positive electrodes on the cell performance. In addition, the temperature effect on the cell performance has also been evaluated in view of practical applications. This work sheds light on constructing integrated 3DGC-CFP and loading of PANI for supercapacitor applications.