Pt-decorated graphene network materials for supercapacitors with enhanced power density

Abstract The power density of supercapacitors is very important for the military applications such as pulsed laser and electromagnetic ejection. However, most effort has been devoted on the improvement of the energy density of supercapacitors. Here we reported supercapacitors with enhanced power density by using carbon composites with Pt-decorated graphene. The Pt-decorated graphene sheet materials were prepared through microwave irradiation method, while the Pt-decorated graphene network was constructed and phenolic resin was in-situ polymerized around the network by one-step hydrothermal treatment, which was further thermally annealed to get the carbon composites with Pt-decorated graphene network. Using these best recommended industry practice and method, the capacitance performance of supercapacitors was tested, which indicated that the introduction of appropriated amount of Pt nanoparticles in the carbon electrode composites can greatly reduce the effective series resistance and charge transfer resistance, while the power density of supercapacitors can be 9.5 times increased by using the optimal carbon composites with Pt-decorated graphene network. These results are important for developing supercapacitors with high power density.