Facile Synthesis of Core-shell Structured CuS@PANI Microspheres and Electrochemical Capacitance Investigations

Abstract

A core-shelled structure CuS@PANI composite microsphere was successfully synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization procedure and the electrochemical performance was investigated. The as-prepared composites were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM and XRD, and their particulate structure has been confirmed. Interestingly, the CuS microsphere was not a whole solid but composed of several sheet-like subunits, and the PANI was loosely-coated on the surface of spherical CuS particles. The advantage of this kind of core-shell structure is that PANI has better conductivity, which favors the electronic conductive channels to the CuS cores. Moreover, the loosely-attached PANI could buffer the disadvantages of the volume changes of CuS during the charge-discharge process. The galvanostatic charge/discharge profile shows a specific capacitance of 308.1 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 and the composite retained 71.6% of its initial capacitance after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A g−1.