Chapter 20 - Conducting polymer-based nanocomposites as electrode materials for supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors, also known as ultracapacitors, have been recognized as promising future energy storage devices, an alternative to rechargeable batteries for modern technology. Conducting polymers, owing to their high intrinsic conductivity and unique properties, have been an ideal material for supercapacitors. Conducting polymers such as polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), polythiophene (PTh), and its derivatives are considered attractive electrode materials for supercapacitors due to unique doping-dedoping properties, easy processability, environmental friendliness, and low cost. However, conducting polymers suffer low performance due to volume variations during long-term cycling stability, which limits their practical application for electrochemical supercapacitors. Therefore this chapter comprehensively demonstrates different aspects of integrating polymers with two-dimensional (2D) carbon-based materials, metal oxides, and polymer–polymer composite electrode materials to boost the performance of traditional supercapacitors. Furthermore, this chapter aims to provide insights into the recent advances, synthetic strategies, and important compositions of polymer composite materials for high-performance supercapacitor applications. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives of conducting polymer-based composites are highlighted for electrochemical supercapacitor applications.