Ionic liquid-assisted microwave reduction of graphite oxide for supercapacitors

Abstract

We present a facile and scalable method for the rapid production of reduced graphene oxide (RG-O) by ionic liquid-assisted microwave chemistry. Microwave irradiation of graphite oxide (GO) in an ionic liquid (IL) enables the rapid reduction of GO within 15 s, producing RG-O containing the IL within their porous structures. The reduced graphene oxide prepared by IL-assisted microwave irradiation (mRG-O) electrodes exhibited a high specific capacitance of similar to 135 F g(-1), which can be attributed to the open architecture of the mRG-O filled with IL moieties. A supercapacitor made with mRG-O in an IL electrolyte operated at a voltage of 3.5 V and showed a high energy density (similar to 58 W h kg(-1)) and power density (similar to 246 kW kg(-1)).