Supercapacitors composed of graphene and boron nitride layers: A first-principles study

We propose a model for nanoscale supercapacitor consisting of two-dimensional insulating BN layers placed between two commensurate and metallic graphene layers. First-principles Density Functional calculations of structure optimized total energy and self-consistent field potential performed on these nanoscale capacitors for different levels of charging and different number of BN layers mark the values of capacitance per unit mass, which are larger than those measured values for the supercapacitors made from other carbon based materials. Our theoretical study also compares results obtained for the present nanoscale capacitor with those of classical Helmholtz model and reveals crucial differences. Our model allows the fabrication of series/parallel mixed combinations consisting of epitaxially grown, sequential and multiple graphene/BN sheets.