Free-standing Reduced Graphene Oxide/Carbon Nanotube Paper for Flexible Sodium-ion Battery Applications

We propose a flexible, binder-free and free-standing carbonaceous paper fabricated via electrostatic spray deposition using reduced graphene oxide/carbon nanotube (rGO/CNT) as a promising electrode material for flexible sodium-ion batteries (NIBs). The as-prepared rGO/CNT paper exhibits a three-dimensional (3D) layered structure by employing rGO as conductive frameworks to provide sodium-storage active sites and CNT as spacer to increase rGO interlayer distance and benefit the diffusion kinetics of sodium ions. Consequently, the rGO/CNT paper delivers an enhanced sodium ion storage capacity of 166.8 mAh g(−1) at 50 mA g(−1), retaining an average capacity of 101.4 mAh g(−1) when current density sets back 100 mA g(−1) after cycling at various current rates. An average capacity of 50 mAh g(−1) at 200 mA g(−1) was stabilized when cycling up to 300 cycles. The well-maintained electrochemical performance of free-standing rGO/CNT paper is due to the well-established hybrid 3D nanostructures, which demonstrates our carbon based material fabricated by a facile approach can be applied as one of the high-performance and low-cost electrode materials for applications in flexible energy storage devices.