MXene-CNT/PANI ternary material with excellent supercapacitive performance driven by synergy

Abstract

• A simple method has been successfully applied to the preparation of MXene-CNT/PANI ternary composite. • MXene makes the CNT/PANI disperse uniformly, achieving good electrical conductivity and facile ion diffusion pathway. • MXene-CNT/PANI electrode has superior gravimetric capacity and cyclic stability. MXene is considered a promising two-dimensional (2D) material with excellent conductivity, and it has been proved to be a potential material for supercapacitor electrode. However, the supercapacitive performances of the pristine MXene are always not satisfactory due to the innate re-stacking tendency of the MXene nanosheets. In this work, the carbon nanotubes/polyaniline (CNT/PANI) nanocomposite was introduced and obtained MXene-CNT/PANI ternary composite electrode. Thanks to the synergy between each component, MXene-CNT/PANI exhibited enhanced specific capacitance that reached 429.4 F/g at 1A/g, which is completely better than that of any single compound in the ternary material. Besides, this ternary composite electrode holds a high stable cycle performance with over 93% retention after 10,000 cycles. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis was also carried out to prove the relationship between the capacitive contribution and the scan rate of the MXene-CNT/PANI.