Simultaneous Preparation of Polyaniline Nanofibers/Manganese Dioxide Composites at the Interface of Oil/Water for Supercapacitive Application

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials 2019-10, Vol.48 (10), p.6666-6674
• Main Authors: Xiong, Shanxin, Yang, Nana, Zhang, Xiangkai, Wang, Ru, Lu, Yizhang, Li, Haifu, Liu, Jian, Li, Shuai, Qiu, Zhu, Wu, Bohua, Chu, Jia, Wang, Xiaoqin, Zhang, Runlan, Gong, Ming, Chen, Zhenming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aniline; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composite materials; Crystal structure; Electronics and Microelectronics; Instrumentation; Manganese dioxide; Materials Science; Monomers; Morphology; Nanofibers; Optical and Electronic Materials; Oxidation; Polyanilines; Polymerization; Potassium; Potassium permanganate; Scanning electron microscopy; Sodium sulfate; Solid State Physics; Strong interactions (field theory)
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-019-07469-z

In this article, polyaniline nanofibers (PANI-NF)/manganese dioxide composites (PANI/MnO 2 ) were synthesized through an interfacial polymerization approach. The PANI-NF and MnO 2 were obtained by in situ oxidation of aniline by potassium permanganate and in situ reduction of potassium permanganate by aniline, respectively. During the interfacial polymerization, the monomer aniline can only be oxidized to PANI after it diffuses into the water phase. This diffusion-control feeding process of the monomer results in nanofiber structure. The morphologies and crystal structures of the prepared PANI/MnO 2 composites were measured by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. The supercapacitive behaviours of these composites were analysed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) tests. The CV and GCD tests indicate that the PANI/MnO 2 composites possess better electrochemical activity and higher capacitive properties compared to neat PANI nanofibers. The specific capacitance of PANI/MnO 2 composites and PANI-NF are 751 F g −1 and 180 F g −1 at 0.2 A g −1 in Na 2 SO 4 solution, respectively. We believe that the enhanced capacitive properties are related to the special nanostructure and strong interaction between PANI and MnO 2 that resulted from the interfacial synthesis method.