Supercapacitor Electrodes Based on High-Purity Electrospun Polyaniline and Polyaniline
By Simotwo, Silas K.; DelRe, Christopher; Kalra, Vibha
Published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
2016
Abstract
Freestanding, binder-free supercapacitor electrodes based on high-purity polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers were fabricated via a single step electrospinning process. The successful electrospinning of nanofibers with an unprecedentedly high composition of PANI (93 wt %) was made possible due to blending ultrahigh molecular weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) with PANI in solution to impart adequate chain entanglements, a critical requirement for electrospinning. To further enhance the conductivity and stability of the electrodes, a small concentration of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was added to the PANI/PEO solution prior to electrospinning to generate PANI/CNT/PEO nanofibers (12 wt % CNTs). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer