Development of Poly(2-Methyl Thioaniline)/Vanadium Pentoxide Hybrid Electrode Material for High Performance Supercapacitor Applications

Abstract

To satisfy the constantly growing demand for energy, it is crucial to design electrode materials that have high specific capacitance and excellent reversibility to be used in applications such as portable electronics, backup power supplies, smart grids, hybrid vehicles, transportation and wearable electronics fields. This report presents a novel approach to creating such materials through the electrochemical deposition of a poly(2-methyl thioaniline)/vanadium pentoxide (PMTA/V2O5) hybrid material. The hybrid material was tested as a supercapacitor electrode material by means of cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The PMTA/V2O5 hybrid demonstrated excellent charge-storage capabilities within a large potential window (–1.0 to 1.0 V), with a specific capacitance of 698 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g for samples that had a 1 mm thickness. This value is higher than the specific capacitance of V2O5 and resulted from the organic-inorganic synergistic effect between PMTA and V2O5. Facilitated charge-transfer between the two components owing to the presence of a strong electron-donating group (-SCH3) in PMTA led to a superior electrochemical performance of the PMTA/V2O5 hybrid. This strategy can be applied to produce thin films based on PMTA/V2O5, which have the potential to serve as active electrode material in supercapacitor devices.