Abstract
The poor cycling stability of polyaniline (PANI) limits its practical application as a pseudocapacitive material due to the volume change during the charge-discharge procedure. Herein, crosslinked carbon nanotubes/polyaniline (C-CNTs/PANI) composites had been designed by the in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of crosslinked carbon nanotubes (C-CNTs), which were obtained by coupling of the functionalized carbon nanotubes with 1,4-benzoquinone. The composite showed a specific capacitance of 294 F/g at the scan rate of 10 mV/s, and could retain 95% of its initial specific capacitance after 1000 CV cycles. Such high electrochemical cycling stability resulting from the crosslinked skeleton of the C-CNTs makes them potential electrode materials for a supercapacitor.
Highlights
With the rise in environmental pollution and the rapid growth of portable electronics, high-efficiency energy storage devices such as supercapacitors have become the most promisingNanomaterials 2015, 5 vehicles in the last decades
The crosslinked carbon nanotubes (C-Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) were synthesized from commercial multi-wall carbon nanotubes via coupling their diazonium salts with 1,4-benzoquinone, as shown in Scheme 1
No obvious sediment could be seen from the dispersion of the pristine CNTs after standing for 12 h, while most of the C-CNTs subsided as naked-eye visible matter from the dispersion even after 6 h (Figure 2)
Summary
With the rise in environmental pollution and the rapid growth of portable electronics, high-efficiency energy storage devices such as supercapacitors have become the most promising. As a potential pseudocapacitive material, it still suffers from limited cycling stability, high self-discharge rate, and low attainable doping degree as well as mass transport limitation within thick polymer layers [9]. To resolve these issues, PANI has been crosslinked [10], nano-structured [11], or supported on various inorganic nanomaterials as composites [12]. Zhong et al [7] prepared 3-D highly porous CNT-based sponges via thermal CVD as a conductive substrate for the deposition of PANI Schematic illustration of the fabrication of the crosslinked carbon nanotubes (C-CNTs) and C-CNTs/polyaniline (PANI) composites
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