Nanoarchitectured current collector for high rate capability of polyaniline based supercapacitor electrode

• Published in: Electrochimica acta 2012-03, Vol.65, p.190-195
• Main Authors: Sumboja, Afriyanti, Wang, Xu, Yan, Jian, Lee, Pooi See
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Capacitance; Capacitors; Capacitors. Resistors. Filters; Coaxial nanowire; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrodes; Exact sciences and technology; Heterostructure nanomaterials; Indium tin oxide; Nanostructure; Nanowires; Polyaniline; Polyanilines; Supercapacitor; Supercapacitors; Various equipment and components
• ISSN: 0013-4686; 1873-3859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2012.01.046

► Preparation of organic/inorganic coaxial nanowires. ► Modifying current collector to improve both capacitance and rate capability simultaneously. ► Improvement in the charge transport process resulted in the superior rate capability. Indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowires array was used as current collector and building block for polyaniline based supercapacitor. Thin polyaniline coating was deposited on the nanowires and resulted in the formation of polyaniline ITO coaxial nanowires. This hybrid heterostructure design improved the specific capacitance, rate capability, and cycling stability of the supercapacitor electrode. Good conductivity harnessed by these directly grown ITO nanowires is useful to improve the charge transport during the charge discharge processes which were confirmed by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement. Electrochemical test in 1M H2SO4 at 4Ag−1 delivered specific capacitance as high as 738Fg−1. In addition, sub-micron size of the intercoaxial nanowires spacing ensures the fast penetration of electrolyte ions which resulted in the superior rate capability (98% capacitance retention when applied current was varied from 4 to 25Ag−1). The capacitance retention is significantly higher as compared to other polyaniline composite electrodes and it is one of the best reported performances to date for polyaniline based supercapacitor electrodes. This work illustrates a promising platform that can be adopted for other redox nanocomposite materials while reaping the benefit as low cost and binder free electrode material for supercapacitor application.