Metal-incorporated laser-induced graphene for high performance supercapacitors

High performance supercapacitors are promising to address the rising energy conversion and storage challenges. Revealing the role of heteroatom incorporation and nanoparticle anchoring in modifying the capacitive properties of graphene-based electrodes is scientifically important to boost the supercapacitor performance, but technically challenging. We demonstrate a simple, but efficient route to fabricate porous graphene with effective heteroatom incorporation and metal nanoparticles anchoring by laser direct writing metal-coated polyimide films. Silver (Ag), copper (Cu), titanium (Ti), and tellurium (Te) are introduced into the porous laser-induced graphene (LIG) as dopants and nanoparticles. Compared to Ti and Te, Ag and Cu exhibit high incorporation efficiency. Incorporation of Ag and Cu into the LIG sheets results in high level disorder and structure expansion, which contributes to the enhanced capacitive performance. All-solid-state micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) made from the metal-incorporated LIGs (M-LIGs) were assembled. The capacity performance of M-LIG-based MSCs exhibits a similar variation trend with respect to the metal type. Besides, the M-LIG-based MSCs exhibit excellent capacitance stability at a bending angle beyond 150°. The results suggest that the effective metal doping and the metal nanoparticle modification could elevate the structural defect density in graphene, therefore contributing to high carrier density and enhanced capacitive performance.