Energy and power density in graphene–PANI nanocomposite supercapacitors with graphite substrate and PVA gel electrolyte
摘要
Despite the fact that incorporation of polyaniline (PANI) along with graphene, together with a hydrogel electrolyte, can be used to progress the performance of supercapacitors, still no systematic studies are there on how to maximise PANI concentration. Graphene–PANI (GPA) nanocomposites of 10 wt% PANI (GPA1), 20 wt% PANI (GPA2), and 30 wt% PANI (GPA3) were prepared on graphite sheet electrodes in this work using “PVA-H3PO4 gel electrolyte” (10 wt% PVA with 1 M H3PO4). The electrochemical, morphological, and structural characterizations were determined by SEM, Raman, XRD, FTIR, “Cyclic voltammetry” (CV), “galvanostatic charge/discharge” (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Optimised composite, GPA3 (30 wt% PANI), provided energy density of 239 Wh/kg-1, specific capacitance of 390 F/g-1, and power density of 4200 W/kg-1, which was much better compared to pure graphene. The long-term stability was proved because, after 5000 cycles GPA3 lost 48% capacitance and 92% Coulombic efficiency. The findings suggest that high energy and power density supercapacitors can be obtained via systematic variation of PANI concentration on a substrate of a sheet of graphite in the presence of a “PVA-H3PO4 gel electrolyte” at low cost and scale.