One‐step preparation of binder‐free nickel‐containing graphene foam electrode for supercapacitors

Abstract

In this study, a nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)2)‐modified reduced graphene oxide (rGO) foam electrode for supercapacitor application is presented. The electrode was prepared without using a binder through a one‐step process with three different ratios (NirGO1, NirGO2, and NirGo3). To compare the supercapacitor performance of the obtained graphene foam electrodes, rGO and rGO:carbon black (CB) standard electrodes with PVDF‐HFP binder were also prepared. All electrodes were then characterized structurally (XPS, EDS, RAMAN, XRD, and FT‐IR) and morphologically (SEM). Structural characterizations demonstrated that the Ni‐containing electrodes were in α‐Ni(OH)2:rGO structure. In addition, NirGO3 exhibited a specific capacitance of 800 F g−1 which is relatively the highest performance between the foam electrodes, while rGO:CB presented a specific capacitance of 900 F g−1. The results demonstrated that with the method proposed for electrode development, it was possible to obtain comparable results with the standard electrode rGO:CB.