An azo functionalized anthraquinone as organic electrode materials for efficient pseudocapacitors with excellent cycling stability

Abstract

Organic electrode materials (OEM) are attractive candidates for fabrication of pseudocapacitors (PSCs) to resolve the current problems related to low energy density and lower cycling stability. These problems can be effectively addressed by designing OEM electrode materials for PSC applications. Herein, we report the synthesis of 2,6-bis((E)-(4-hydroxyphenyl)diazenyl)anthracene-9,10-dione (AZOAQ) and utilized for fabrication of AZOAQ/graphene foil (GF) electrode. The two-electrode symmetric supercapacitor (SSC) cell made of the AZOAQ/GF show remarkably higher specific capacitance (Csp), excellent energy and power densities compared to reported OEMs. The SSC device made from AZOAQ/GF achieves specific capacitance (Csp) of 159.12 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 current density, remarkable than reported for SCs based on OEMs. The higher conductivity exhibited high energy density of 28.64 Wh kg−1 at power density of 1080.02 W kg−1. The SSC cell also displayed outstanding cycling stability with capacitance retention of 93.22 % after 10,000 galvanostatic charging/discharging (GCD) cycles. Furthermore, considering the simple molecular design for OEM electrode material, the proposed AZOAQ molecule would be an attractive, cheaper molecule for large-scale synthesis and fabricating organic electrodes for different energy storage applications in the future.