One-step low-temperature liquid phase method for synthesis of three-dimensional porous graphene and applications in supercapacitor

Three-dimensional porous graphene (3DPG) has been widely used as electrode material for supercapacitors due to its high conductivity and high specific surface area. Herein, 3DPG with controllable three-dimensional (3D) morphologies was successfully synthesized via using sodium ascorbate (SA) and ethylenediamine (EDA) by a one-step low-temperature method. The porous structure and reductive degree of the 3DPG can be tuned by adjusting the addition amount of reducing agent and pH value of graphene oxide (GO) suspension, and the pore size and specific capacitance of the 3DPG gradually increased with the suitable increase of EDA and SA. Moreover, we found that the alkaline environment is more conducive to the synthesis of 3DPG than acid environment. It is worth mentioning that the specific capacitance of the as-prepared 3DPG reached a high value for 169 F g−1 when the suitable addition amount of reducing agent and pH value was given.