A simple strategy to prepare polyaniline nanorods by surfactant-assisted electropolymerization for remarkably improved supercapacitive performances

Abstract

Abstract This work reports on the significant improvement of electrochemical capacitive properties of the polyaniline (PANI) electrode via morphology changes, following an efficient and simple route. Specifically, a surfactant-assisted electropolymerization method is put forward to prepare PANI nanorods (PNRs) electrode and the formation mechanism of PNRs is investigated. In comparison to PANI electrode with compact microstructures, PNRs electrode has a dispersed nanorod-shaped morphology, showing substantially improved supercapacitive performances. The resulting PNRs electrode has the high areal capacitance of 345.9 mF cm−2, which represents a boost of as much as 40% comparing with that of PANI electrode. The PNRs electrode also features superior rate performance and excellent cycling stability, exhibiting 93.1% of capacitance retention after 10000 cycles. The present study has demonstrated a new and simple strategy to prepare nanostructured PANI and the prepared PNRs supercapacitor electrode is very promising for practical applications.