Electrochemical properties of the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/single-walled carbon nanotubes composite synthesized by solid-state heating method

Abstract

The poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/single-walled carbon nanotubes (PEDOT/SWNTs) composites with content of SWNTs varying from 4wt% to 12wt% were prepared by a simple solid-state heating method. The results from FTIR and UV–vis spectra showed that the composites were successfully performed by this method, and the strong interactions between the PEDOT and SWNTs occurred in the composite with 8wt% SWNTs as compared to other composites. The galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements indicated that the PEDOT/SWNTs composite had higher specific capacitances than PEDOT, and the composite with 8wt% SWNTs had the highest specific capacitance among the composites. The morphological studies showed that the composite with 8wt% SWNTs exhibited a mixture of the plate-like PEDOT and nonuniformly distributed SWNTs. The further electrochemical tests on the composite with 8wt% SWNTs showed that the composite had a high specific capacitance of 188Fg−1 at 0.5mAcm−2 and a capacity retention of 66% over 1300 cycles.