Reduced graphene oxide/cellulose nanocrystal composite films with high specific capacitance and tensile strength.

Zejun Ding, Yanjun Tang, Peng Zhu

International journal of biological macromolecules 2022 Mar 01

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Due to the environmental degradation and energy depletion, the strategy for fabricating high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials based on graphene and nanocellulose has received great attention. Herein, an environmentally friendly reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) composite conductive film was prepared using L-ascorbic acid (L-AA) as the reductant of graphene oxide (GO). Based on chemical structure analysis, L-AA was proved to be an effective reductant to remove oxygen containing groups of GO. Through microstructure observation, a unique stacking structure of CNC and RGO was observed, which could be largely attributed to the hydrogen bond interaction. Furthermore, the effect of CNC amount on the performance of RGO/CNC composite films was also systematically investigated. Particularly, the addition of CNC was found to exert a positive effect on the tensile strength, which might be mainly due to a mass of hydrogen bonds between the CNCs. Meanwhile, the RGO/CNC composite conductive film featured ideal electrical double-layer capacitive (EDLC) behavior, exhibiting a gravity specific capacitance of 222.5 F/g and tensile strength of 32.17 MPa at 20 wt% CNC content. Therefore, the RGO/CNC composite conductive films may hold great promise for environmentally friendly electrode materials of supercapacitors and flexible electrical devices. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Zejun Ding, Yanjun Tang, Peng Zhu. Reduced graphene oxide/cellulose nanocrystal composite films with high specific capacitance and tensile strength. International journal of biological macromolecules. 2022 Mar 01;200:574-582