Fabrication of Highly Flexible, Scalable, and High‐Performance Supercapacitors Using Polyaniline/Reduced Graphene Oxide Film with Enhanced Electrical Conductivity and Crystallinity

Abstract

With developments in technology, tremendous effort has been devoted to produce flexible, scalable, and high‐performance supercapacitor electrode materials. This report presents a novel fabrication method of highly flexible and scalable electrode material for high‐performance supercapacitors using solution‐processed polyaniline (PANI)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) hybrid film. SEM, TEM, Raman, and XPS analyses show that the PANI/RGO film is successfully synthesized. The percentages of the PANI component in the film are controlled (88, 76, and 60%), and the maximum electrical conductivity (906 S cm−1) is observed at the PANI percentage of 76%. Notably, electrical conductivity of the PANI/RGO film (906 S cm−1) is larger than both PANI (580 S cm−1) and RGO (46.5 S cm−1) components. XRD analysis demonstrates that the strong π–π interaction between the RGO and the PANI cause more compact packing of the PANI chains by inducing more fully expanded conformation of the PANI chains in the solution, leading to increase in the electrical conductivity and crystallinity of the film. The PANI/RGO film also displays diverse advantages as a scalable and flexible electrode material (e.g., controllable size and great flexibility). During the electrochemical tests, the film exhibits high capacitance of 431 F g−1 with enhanced cycling stability.

Synergetic effect of synthesized sulfonated polyaniline/quaternized graphene and its application as a high-performance supercapacitor electrode

“…However, the typical peak of q-graphene and s-PANINa completely disappears in nanohybrid, which demonstrates that the strengthened stacking along the specific direction between the functional groups of the q-graphene and the s-PANINa induces the crystallization of nanohybrid. Increasing in the crystalline character would affect the electrical properties of nanohybrid, which is significant for the capacitor application [16,40]. The above discussion indicates that nanohybrid considerably should show better electrical conductivity comparison to s-PANINa and q-graphene.…”

“…With addition insulating salts of the s-PANINa polymer to the q-graphene, the conductivity has increased to 1000 S cm -1 . Nanohybrid is exhibiting higher electrical conductivity owing to the formation of a p-conjugated structure between the s-PANINa and graphene with electrostatic interaction, which causes the more compact packing of the quinoid ring PANI chains on graphene surface, resulting in enhance in the electrical conductivity and degree of crystallinity [16,41].…”

“…As another class of supercapacitors electrode material, graphene has attracted great interest due to its high theoretical surface area, good thermal and mechanical stability and high electrical conductivity [13]. Graphene/conductive polymer hybrids have attracted great deal of attention because they may possess novel combinations with superior electrochemical characteristics than either of the individual components [14][15][16][17]. Among them, it has been already confirmed that the hybrids consisted of polyaniline and graphene possess the superior electrochemical properties than either of the individual components, which are potential materials for the development of high-rate and stable supercapacitor electrodes [18,19].…”

Application of GO in Energy Conversion and Storage

“…The RGO-PANI composites have been further developed [196][197][198][199]. A polyaniline-grafted reduced GO (PANI-g-RGO) composites were prepared in a three-step process starting from functionalizing GO with 4-aminophenol via acyl chemistry, where a concomitant reduction of GO takes place for supercapacitor application [196].…”

Comparative study on various sponges as substrates for reduced graphene oxide-based supercapacitor

“…4a shows the galvanostatic charge-discharge curves of the RGO-PVA, RGO-melamine, and RGO-PU sponges at a constant current density of 5 A/g. All of the curves are quasitriangular, which indicates the contribution of electric doublelayer capacitance [20,26]. The specific capacitance values are calculated from galvanostatic charge-discharge curves according to the Eq.…”