Designing High-performing Symmetric Supercapacitor by Engineering Polyaniline on Steel Mesh Surface via Electrodeposition.

Abstract

Energy storage is one of the most stimulating requirements to keep civilization on the wheel of progress. Supercapacitors generally exhibit a high-power density, have a maximum life cycle, quick charging time, and are eco-friendly. Polyaniline (PANI), a conductive polymer, is considered an efficacious electrode material for supercapacitors due to its good electroactivity, including pseudocapacitive behavior. Here, we present the fabrication of a symmetric supercapacitor device based on steel mesh electrodeposited with PANI. Due to its effective conductivity, porous nature, and low cost, steel mesh is a good choice as a current collector to fabricate a high-performance supercapacitor at a low cost. The optimum fabricated supercapacitor has a high specific capacitance of ~353 mF cm-2. Furthermore, the supercapacitor obtained an energy density of ~ 26.4 µW h cm-2 at a power density of ~ 400 µW cm-2. The fabricated supercapacitor shows high stability, as the initial capacitance remained almost the same after 1000 charge/discharge cycles. PANI is a promising candidate for mass production and wide applications due to its low cost and high performance.