One pot synthesis of a highly water-dispersible hybrid glucose carbides and reduced graphene oxide material with superior electrical capacitance

In this paper, reduced graphene oxide with glucose carbides (RGO-GC) was synthesized in a simple one pot synthesis via a hydrothermal approach. Graphene oxide (GO) dispersion was dissolved together with glucose in water, and the mixture was heated to 180 °C in an autoclave. After hydrothermal treatment, a thin GO-like glucose carbides (GC) film grows in situ on the RGO surface. Differing from RGO, the obtained RGO-GC not only has a much better dispersion in water, but also can be used as a support and a green reductant to fabricate Ag-decorated RGO-GC. Moreover, the maximum specific capacitance of the RGO-GC reaches as high as 247 F g⁻¹ at a charging/discharging current density of 0.1 A g⁻¹ in 1 M H₂SO₄ solution. After 1000 charging/discharging cycles, the specific capacitance still retains 95 % of its initial specific capacitance. The greatly improved electrochemical performance is attributed to the increased surface wettability, more effective ionic diffusion, and a higher conductivity arising from the hydrophilic GO-like GC grown on the RGO surfaces.