Nanocomposites of Conducting Polymers and 2D Materials for Supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors are fast-charging energy storage devices that have huge potential for commercial applications in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and emergency backup power systems. Conventional supercapacitors designed using carbon electrodes possess a long-cycle life without any performance degradation. But the conventional supercapacitors suffer from low energy density making them unsuitable for commercial applications. This aggravates the challenge to tailor the properties of electrode materials to deliver high power output critically needed for commercial applications. A successful strategy to gain high-power output is to enhance the surface area and electrical conductivity of porous electrodes in supercapacitors. Realizing the importance of high electrical conductivity, conducting polymers are preferred as electrode materials in supercapacitors. Higher specific energies could be achieved by tuning the dopants in the polymer which, on the other hand, creates negative effects by causing mechanical failure of the electrode under prolonged cycling leading to less than 1000 cycles of operation. Incorporating 2D materials like graphene, transition metal-oxides, dicarbonides, and dichalcogenides into the conducting polymer electrodes improves the conductivity (at negative (or) reducing potentials), cyclic stability, mechanical properties, and performance for supercapacitor applications. This chapter envisages to review the nanocomposites of conducting polymer electrodes containing 2D materials as potential material for supercapacitors in terms of technological interventions and aims to propose a framework that correlates the synthesis and properties of tailored electrodes to the overall performance of the supercapacitors for commercial applications. Conducting polymers, 2D materials, nanocomposites, supercapacitors