Engineering micro-supercapacitors of graphene nanowalls/Ni heterostructure based on microfabrication technology

Heterostructure of graphene nanowalls (GNW) supported Ni thin-layer was fabricated to form an on-chip pseudocapacitor via a standard microelectromechanical system process. Beyond a high-rate capability of the micro-supercapacitors, a large specific energy density of 2.1 mW h cm⁻³ and power density up to 5.91 W cm⁻³ have been achieved, which are two orders of magnitude higher than those commercial electrolytic capacitors and thin-film batteries, respectively. Rational analysis revealed a rapid GNW growth originated from the Pt current collector embedment by catalyzing hydrocarbon dissociating. The unique concept in our design includes that Ni was evaporated onto GNW to serve as both the shadow mask for microelectrode patterning and subsequently a precursor to be in-situ electrochemically converted into pseudo-capacitive Ni(OH)₂ for capacitance enhancing. Addressing the challenge to uniformly coat in complex nanoporous structures, this strategy renders a conformal deposition of pseudo-capacitive material on individual graphene nanoflakes, leading to efficient merits harnessing of huge accessible surfaces from the conductive GNW networks and great capacitance of the Ni-based active materials for high performance delivery. The proof of concept can be potentially extended to other transition metals and paves the way to further apply GNW hybrids in diverse microsystems.