Development of novel PVA-TEOS-MnO2 and its PANI incorporated flexible membrane electrodes and evaluation of their supercapacitor performance

Abstract

The properties of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) crosslinked poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes were altered by introducing MnO2 nanoparticles through the chemical oxidation of KMnO4. The resulting PVA-TEOS-MnO2-4 membrane was modified by in-situ polymerization of aniline monomer in the membrane matrix, and obtained the PVA-TEOS-MnO2-PANI nanocomposite flexible membrane electrode. After performing the physicochemical studies, the flexible membrane electrodes were subjected to cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The PVA-TEOS-MnO2-PANI electrode membrane exhibited specific capacitance as high as 550.23 F g−1 at a current density of 0.1 A g−1. The specific capacitance and energy density of PVA-TEOS-MnO2-PANI were found to be higher than PVA-TEOS-MnO2-4 and its cycle-life stability was retained more than 90 % of its initial capacitance even after 1000 cycles. Based on the results, it is concluded that the PVA-TEOS-MnO2-PANI nanocomposite flexible membrane electrode could be a potential candidate for the development of flexible supercapacitor devices on large-scale applications. We further fabricated a micro-supercapacitor device and measured its specific capacitance, energy density and power density at a current density of 5.0 mA g−1, and were respectively found to be 59 F g−1, 7.42 Wh kg−1, and 65.89 W kg−1. In addition, the process of fabrication used in this study offers a simple method for the mass production of flexible and light-weight micro-supercapacitor devices.