Preparation and electrochemical characterization of PANI/MnCo2O4 nanocomposite as supercapacitor electrode material

Abstract

In this work, PANI/MnCo2O4 nanocomposite was prepared via in-situ chemical polymerization method. Materials synthesized were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron spectroscopy. In addition, surface characterization of samples such as specific surface area, pore volume, and pore size distribution was studied. Supercapacitor capability of materials was investigated in 1 mol L–1 Na2SO4 solution using cyclic voltammetry in different potential scan rates and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The specific capacitance of materials was calculated, and it was observed that the specific capacitance of PANI/MnCo2O4 nanocomposite was 185 F g−1, much larger than PANI. Moreover, the prepared nanocomposite exhibited better rate capability in scan rate of 100 mV s−1 with respect to PANI. The EIS experiments revealed that the nanocomposite has lower charge transfer resistance compared with pure PANI. Subsequently, it was shown that the nanocomposite cycling performance was superior to the PANI cycling performance.