An effective interaction in polypyrrole/nickel phosphide (PPy/Ni2P) for high-performance supercapacitor

Abstract

Polypyrrole/nickel phosphide (PPy/Ni2P) composites were synthesized through a facile two-step method. The results show that when there is 30% Ni2P in PPy/Ni2P (active material 3 mg), the prepared composites possess uniform morphology, which composed of large quantities of broccoli-like PPy microstructures (average dimension of about 200 nm) and Ni2P spherical particles (average diameters of 250 nm). It achieves a higher specific capacity for 476.5 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 in a three-electrode system, even after 3000 cycles the capacity maintained 89%. The excellent electrochemical performance of PPy/Ni2P composites may be due to the good dispersion and uniform morphology of Ni2P nanoparticles. In addition, the synergistic effect between PPy and Ni2P nanoparticles also dramatically improves the electrochemical properties of the composites.