Preparation of high specific surface area composite carbon cryogels from self-assembly of graphene oxide and resorcinol monomers for supercapacitors

Three-dimensional grapheme-doped carbon cryogels (CCs) with high specific surface area have been prepared via the self-assembly of graphene oxide (GO) sheets and resorcinol (R)-formaldehyde (F) monomers. The porosity of the composite CCs can be regulated from high mesoporosity to microporosity by adjusting the mass ratio of GO sheets to RF monomers. When the loading amount of GO sheets is 1.3 wt.% in the precursor mixture, the specific surface area of the resulting composite CCs is up to 1178 m2 g−1, which is much higher than that of the neat RF CCs (766 m2 g−1). Furthermore, the as-prepared composite CC electrode displays a high specific capacitance (205 F g−1 at 1.0 mV s−1) and superior rate capability compared to the neat RF CCs.