To form layer by layer composite film in view of its application as supercapacitor electrode by exploiting the techniques of thin films formation just around the corner

Abstract

A method is described to form robust composite supercapacitor electrodes consisting of polyaniline (PANI)-graphene (GNS) and PANI-MoS2 nanosheets wherein composites are formed by Layer by Layer (LbL) deposition. PANI layer consisting of 10–15 nm particle size was formed by LLIRT, while GNS and MoS2 layers were formed by modified LLIRT. A special feature of the development is the architecture which is rarely found in the literature wherein singular components are stacked over each other to form a composite. The architecture is found to show strong synergistic effects suitable for high performance supercapacitor applications. The composites were characterized by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) etc. The characterization indicates the formation of composites having uniform distribution of PANI nanoparticles over the 2D nanosheets of GNS and MoS2 respectively. The electrochemical performance of the composites was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Galvanostatic Charge Discharge (GCD). The composite layer consisting of PANI-GNS alternate layers, showed an excellent specific capacitance (Csp) of 549 F g-1 while PANI-MoS2 alternate layers and PANI layers showed Csp to be (413 F g-1) and (185 F g-1) respectively. It is proposed that Csp stability of the composites is greatly enhanced by the architecture of composite formation through LbL deposition approach. PANI-GNS showed high stability (95% retention of Csp), PANI-MoS2 (94% retention of Csp) as against single component capacitance of PANI (67% retention of Csp). The results reveal the importance of the architecture of composite formation. The architecture of depositing alternate layers of components to form a composite would have special properties leading to synergistic effect in the applications. The present communication is a proof of this concept. It shows the boost in the charge storage resulting in stable robust supercapacitors formation. We predict similar advantages in other applications such as solar energy conversion, sensors, catalysis, etc.