Construction of nanoporous gold/g-C3N4 heterostructure for electrochemical supercapacitor

Hybrids with two-dimensional and three-dimensional nanostructures have attracted great interest in the construction of supercapacitor electrodes due to their unique structural features. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets are deposited on the surface of a nanoporous gold (NPG) film via an electrochemical method to form a hybrid electrode of NPG/g-C3N4 with an ultra-thin, ultra-light and good flexible characteristics. The electrochemical tests show that the hybrid electrode exhibits a good supercapacitive performance, such as an admirable specific capacitance (440 F g−1 at 2 A g−1) in 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution and a favorable cycling durability (maintaining 98% capacity after 10000 cycles). More interesting, the NPG/g-C3N4 electrode displays a striking enhancement of supercapacitive performance with the increase of bending angle. This superior property can be attributed to the unique nanosheets on nanoporous structure by a strong interfacial effect between the defected Au atoms of NPG and g-C3N4. [Display omitted] •g-C3N4 nanosheets were deposited onto the nanoporous gold film (NPG).•A 2D-3D heterostructure was obtained by nanosheets on nanoporous networks.•The NPG/g-C3N4 composite achieves excellent supercapacitive performances.•The strong interfacial interaction enhances the supercapacitive performances.