Synthesis and Electrochemical Characterization of Polypyrrole/Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube Composite Electrodes for Supercapacitor Applications

Abstract

Summary of reactant composition for synthesizing PPy/ MWCNT composites.PCNT-10 PCNT-20 PCNT-30MWCNT (g) 0.100 0.210 0.325FeCl 3 (g) 3.880 3.880 3.880Pyrrole (g) 0.967 0.967 0.967Water (mL) 100 100 100 Introduction The growing demand for portable electronic systems, digital communication devices and electric vehicles has prompted con-siderable interest in supercapacitors with high power density and long cycle life. 1-3 The major types of materials used in super-capacitors are: (i) high surface area activated carbons, (ii) re-dox metal oxides and (iii) conducti ng polymers. 4-6 Among them, conducting polymers attracted great deal of interest due to their high specific capacitance, low material cost, easy synthesis and many other inherent properties. 7-14 However, the main drawback of conducting polymer-based supercapacitors is poor cycle life due to the volume change during doping and dedoping process. Hence it is necessary to strengthen adequately the electroche-mically active sites of conducting polymers by the addition of large surface area carbon materials or carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs have been attractive materials for electrodes of super-capacitors due to their high accessible surface area, high elec-tronic conductivity, chemical and mechanical stability. In order to improve the mechanical and electrochemical properties of electrodes based on conducting polymers, the composites of conducting polymers and CNTs have been synthesized for supercapacitor applications.