Achieving Ultrahigh Cycling Stability and Extended Potential Window for Supercapacitors through Asymmetric Combination of Conductive Polymer Nanocomposite and Activated Carbon.

Abstract

Conducting polymers and carbon-based materials such as graphene oxide (GO) and activated carbon (AC) are the most promising capacitive materials, though both offer charge storage through different mechanisms. However, their combination can lead to some unusual results, offering improvement in certain properties in comparison with the individual materials. Cycling stability of supercapacitors devices is often a matter of concern, and extensive research is underway to improve this phenomena of supercapacitive devices. Herein, a high-performance asymmetric supercapacitor device was fabricated using graphene oxide–polyaniline (GO@PANI) nanocomposite as positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as negative electrode. The device showed 142 F g−1 specific capacitance at 1 A g−1 current density with capacitance retention of 73.94% at higher current density (10 A g−1). Most importantly, the device exhibited very high electrochemical cycling stability. It retained 118.6% specific capacitance of the starting value after 10,000 cycles at 3 Ag−1 and with coulombic efficiency of 98.06 %, indicating great potential for practical applications. Very small solution resistance (Rs, 0.640 Ω) and charge transfer resistance (Rct, 0.200 Ω) were observed hinting efficient charge transfer and fast ion diffusion. Due to asymmetric combination, potential window was extended to 1.2 V in aqueous electrolyte, as a result higher energy density (28.5 Wh kg−1) and power density of 2503 W kg−1 were achieved at the current density 1 Ag−1. It also showed an aerial capacitance of 57 mF cm−2 at current 3.2 mA cm−2. At this current density, its energy density was maximum (0.92 mWh cm−2) with power density (10.47 W cm−2).