Flexible and robust amino-functionalized glass fiber filter paper/polyaniline composite films as free-standing tensile-tolerant electrodes for high performance supercapacitors

Abstract

Flexible and robust amino-functionalized glass fiber filter paper/polyaniline (A-GFFP/PANI) composite films were fabricated as free-standing tensile-tolerant electrodes for high performance supercapacitors, by facile in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline on the surface of glass fiber filter paper (GFFP) in sulfuric acid solution, after surface modification. The results showed that the surface modification of GFFP with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane played a role as bridge for connecting the polyaniline and glass fiber, resulting to unique polyaniline (PANI) coating and subsequently better electrochemical properties. The specific capacitance and electrical conductivity of the A-GFFP/PANI-1 electrode, which was fabricated via the conventional chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline with concentration of 0.18mol/L, were 391.3F/g and 2.78S/cm, while the A-GFFP/PANI-2 electrode, prepared via rapid-mixing chemical oxidative polymerization under the same preparation condition, possessed the specific capacitance and electrical conductivity of 490.6F/g and 1.83S/cm. The capacitance retention of the A-GFFP/PANI-2 electrode (106. 8%) was also better than that of the A-GFFP/PANI-1 electrode (98.0%) after 2000 CV cycles at a scan rate of 100mV/s, also owing to the bridging function of the functional silane. The A-GFFP/PANI-2 electrode retained 72.6% of its initial specific capacitance under the stress of 0.70MPa for 1h, indicating its good tolerance to tensile.