Heat assisted facile synthesis of nanostructured polyaniline/reduced crumbled graphene oxide as a high-performance flexible electrode material for supercapacitors

Abstract

Smart wearable electronic gadgets are getting popularity among the masses and their high demand leading the quest for high power/energy density flexible energy storage devices like supercapacitors and batteries. To address the need for high energy and high power in supercapacitors, we have prepared heat-assisted polyaniline (PANI)/reduced crumbled graphene oxide (rcGO) nanostructures as a high quality flexible electrode material through in-situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of crumbled graphene oxide (cGO). Spectroscopic results revealed the successful reduction of cGO by charge transfer from PANI chains during the heating process. The resulting PANI/rcGO nanocomposites have been used as electrode material, and cast into flexible electrodes to fabricate symmetrical supercapacitor device. The flexible PANI/rcGO electrodes have delivered a specific capacitance of 299 F g−1 at 0.5 A g-1 current density, whereas pure PANI given 248 F g-1 at the same rate. Further, PANI/rcGO nanocomposites exhibited long cyclic stability even after 2000 charge-discharge cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance of heat-assisted PANI/rcGO nanocomposites have been realized due to the lamination of rcGO by PANI chains and formation of high interfacial contact between rcGO and polymer chains.