Exploring the potential of polyaniline-calcium titanate (PANI-CaTiO3) nanocomposites in supercapacitors: Synthesis and electrochemical investigation

Abstract

This work presents the simple approach for the synthesis of CaTiO3 incorporated polyaniline nanocomposites (PANI- CaTiO3) by facile in-situ oxidative polymerization route, to be used as electrode materials for supercapacitors (SCs). The developed samples were evaluated using several analytical methods viz. X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET). The electrochemical performance of the prepared nanocomposites for energy storage application was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in 3 M of KOH as an electrolyte. In comparison to pristine PANI, which demonstrated a specific capacitance of 257 Fg−1, and pure CaTiO3, which exhibited a specific capacitance of 142 Fg−1, the results of cyclic voltammetry (CV) for PANI-35 % CaTiO3 nanocomposites revealed a higher specific capacitance of 966 Fg−1 at 10 mV/s sweep rate. The highest energy density and power density for the PANI-35 % CaTiO3 nanocomposites were shown by galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurements to be 58.14 Whkg−1 and 3.2 kWkg−1, respectively, at a higher specific capacitance value of 984.21 Fg−1 at 6.86 Ag−1 current density. Additionally, the straight line in low frequency Nyquist plots was linked to the low electrolyte diffusion (Warburg) resistance within the electrode and ions diffusion into the electrode surface, confirming the CV results. Moreover, this study proposes an innovative research concept for the fabrication of electrode materials specifically designed for supercapacitors.