The capacitive energy storage performance of activated carbon can be significantly improved by embedding graphene quantum dots owing to the formation of overall conductive networks.
High surface area,
good conductivity, and high mechanical strength are important for
carbon nanofiber fabrics (CNFs) as high-performance supercapacitor
electrodes. However, it remains a big challenge because of the trade-off
between the strong and continuous conductive network and a well-developed
porous structure. Herein, we report a simple strategy to integrate
these properties into the electrospun CNFs by adding graphene quantum
dots (GQDs). The uniformly embedded GQDs play a crucial bifunctional
role in constructing an entire reinforcing phase and conductive network.
Compared with the pure CNF, the GQD-reinforced activated CNF exhibits
a greatly enlarged surface area from 140 to 2032 m2 g–1 as well as a significantly improved conductivity
and strength of 5.5 and 2.5 times, respectively. The mechanism of
the robust reinforcing effect is deeply investigated. As a freestanding
supercapacitor electrode, the fabric performs a high capacitance of
335 F g–1 at 1 A g–1 and extremely
high capacitance retentions of 77% at 100 A g–1 and
45% at 500 A g–1. Importantly, the symmetric device
can be charged to 80% capacitance within only 2.2 s, showing great
potential for high-power startup supplies.
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