1-Pyrenebutyric Acid Functionalized Reduced Graphene Oxide (1-Pb-Rgo) Energy Storage

Abstract

Supercapacitors are a class of energy storage device which has high energy density and high power density. As a material with unique 2D structure as well as outstanding physical properties such as high electrical conductivity and large surface area, graphene demonstrates great potential to be the electrode material for supercapacitors. Despite graphene showing theoretical surface area as high as 2630 m 2 /g, results acquired showed that not all the surface area were utilized. This could be due to the tendency of the graphene layers to restack. In this work, 1-pyrenebutyric acid (1-PB) was anchored to graphene with the pyrenyl group via π-π stacking to prevent the restacking of graphene layers. The successful functionalization of 1-PB on the hydrophobic surface of rGO was characterized with UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The electrochemical performance of 1-PB-rGO was studied through cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (CD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Using 6 M KOH as the electrolyte, we obtained an enhanced specific capacitance for 1-PB-rGO. These findings indicates that the noncovalent functionalization of 1-PB on rGO enhances the capacitive storage ability and it show potential as an electrode material in the energy storage application.

On Monolayer Formation of Pyrenebutyric Acid on Graphene

“…As shown in Figure a, PBA consists of a pyrene group that contains π-electrons and a carboxylic group that can be used to facilitate further functionalization. Functionalization with this molecule on graphene flakes and carbon nanotubes in liquid solutions is well studied, − but less is known about continuous graphene films that in turn are deposited on a substrate. The functionalization of graphene films obtained by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) can be of practical interest for their potential in large-scale sensor production and sensor array applications.…”