Enhancing effect of boron trifluoride diethyl etherate electrolytes on capacitance performance of electropolymerized poly[poly(N-vinyl-carbazole)] films

Abstract

In this paper, poly[poly(N-vinyl-carbazole)] (PPVK) films electrodeposited in tetrahydrofuran (THF) containing 12 % boron trifluoride diethyl etherate (BFEE) were studied as electrode active material for supercapacitors. The morphology and thermal property were characterized by SEM, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and thermogravimetry (TG), respectively. The electrochemical capacitive behaviors of the PPVK films were also investigated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The electrochemical results showed that the specific capacitance of PPVK films in CH3CN solution was about 126 mF cm−2 at 1.5 mA cm−2 and the capacitance retention was only 14.4 % after 1000 cycles. It was exciting to improve the specific capacitance up to 169.3 mF cm−2 at 1.5 mA cm−2 and to make the cyclic stability increase to 81.8 % capacitance retention after 5000 cycles when the equivalent BFEE was added into the CH3CN solution containing 0.05 M Bu4NBF4 electrolyte. These results clearly demonstrated that BFEE was an efficient promoter for the enhancement of the capacitance performance of PPVK films. Therefore, with the help of BFEE electrolyte, the PPVK films have potential application as capacitive materials in high-performance energy storage devices.