Abstract
Composite porous supercapacitor electrodes were prepared by growing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on graphite nanoplatelet- or graphene nanoplatelet-deposited open-cell polyurethane (PU) sponges via a vapor phase polymerization (VPP) method. The resulting composite supercapacitor electrodes exhibited great capacitive performance, with PEDOT acting as both the conductive binder and the active material. The chemical composition was characterized by Raman spectroscopy and the surface morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Cyclic voltammetry (CV), charge-discharge (CD) tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were utilized to study the electrical performance of the composite electrodes produced in symmetrically configured supercapacitor cells. The carbon material deposited on PU substrates and the polymerization temperature of PEDOT affected significantly the PEDOT morphology and the electrical properties of the resulting composite sponges. The highest areal specific capacitance 798.2 mF cm−2 was obtained with the composite sponge fabricated by VPP of PEDOT at 110 °C with graphene nanoplatelet-deposited PU sponge substrate. The capacitance retention of this composite electrode was 101.0% after 10,000 charging–discharging cycles. The high flexibility, high areal specific capacitance, excellent long-term cycling stability and low cost make these composite sponges promising electrode materials for supercapacitors.
Highlights
Research on energy storage is important for the transition to renewable resources, with supercapacitors being of great interest due to the high power density and quick charge/discharge process
Much effort has been expended on conductive polymers (CPs)-based supercapacitor electrodes due to their high theoretical capacitance, ease of synthesis, and relatively high electrical conductivity compared to transition metal oxides
GtPU and GnPU sponges were fabricated with the “dip and dry” technique by depositing graphite nanoplatelets and graphene nanoplatelets onto PU sponge, and they were used as the substrates for vapor phase polymerization of PEDOT
Summary
Research on energy storage is important for the transition to renewable resources, with supercapacitors being of great interest due to the high power density and quick charge/discharge process. Unlike EDLCs, pseudocapacitors achieve their capacitance by fast and reversible redox reactions (faradaic reactions) of the electrode materials during the charge-discharge process [5,6]. The most commonly used electrode materials for pseudocapacitors are transition metal oxides and conductive polymers (CPs) [8,9,10,11]. Transition metal oxides can provide high specific capacitance, fast and reversible redox reactions, and good stability during cycling. Much effort has been expended on CP-based supercapacitor electrodes due to their high theoretical capacitance, ease of synthesis, and relatively high electrical conductivity compared to transition metal oxides. CPs have several advantages over other electrode materials for supercapacitors, they suffer from low mechanical stability and poor rate performance during the charge– discharge process. The relatively high electric resistance of pseudocapacitive materials, compared to carbon materials and metals, limits the electron-transfer rate, leading to inferior performance at high charge–discharge current density [24]
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