Abstract:
The design and fabrication of porous electrode materials is highly desirable for improving the performance
of electrochemical supercapacitors (ECs) and thus, it is important to produce such porous materials in large
quantities. In this study, we used a microwave method to produce porous carbonaceous materials
designated as graphene foam/polyvinyl alcohol/formaldehyde (GF/PVA/F) and graphene foam-polyvinyl
alcohol/phenol-formaldehyde (GF/PVA/PF) from graphene foam, phenol formaldehyde and polyvinyl
alcohol (PVA). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy and Fourier-Transform Infrared
Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to characterize the surface morphology, structural defects and functional
groups of the materials respectively. Based on these porous materials, the two symmetrical ECs
fabricated exhibited a specific capacitance in the range of 0.62–1.92 F cm 2, phase angles of 81 and
84 and resistor–capacitor (RC) relaxation time constants of 4 and 14 seconds. The physicochemical
properties of the electrolyte ion (diffusion) and its influence on the capacitive behavior of the porous
materials were elucidated. These encouraging results demonstrate the versatile potential of these porous
materials (GF/PVA/F and GF/PVA/PF) in developing high energy storage devices.
