High-Efficiency Supercapacitor Electrodes of CVD-grown Graphenes Hybridized with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

We demonstrate, for the first time, high-efficiency supercapacitors by utilizing chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphenes hybridized with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). A single-layer graphene was grown by simple CVD growth method, and transferred to polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The bare graphenes were further hybridized with multiwalled CNTs by drop-coating CNTs on graphenes. The supercapacitors using bare graphenes and graphenes with CNTs revealed that graphenes with CNTs resulted in enhanced supercapacitor performances of 2.2- (the mass-specific capacitance) and 4.4-fold (the area-specific capacitance) of those of bare graphenes. Our strategy to improve electrochemical performance of CVD-grown graphenes is advantageous for large-scale graphene electrodes due to high electrical conductivity of CVD-grown graphenes and cost-effectiveness of using multiwalled CNTs as compared to conventional employment of single-walled CNTs.