Electrochemical performance of interfacially polymerized polyaniline nanofibres as electrode materials for non-aqueous redox supercapacitors

Abstract

H⁺ doped polyaniline nanofibre (PH) was synthesized by interfacial polymerization and polyanilines doped with Li salt (PLI and PHLI) were prepared by immersing emeraldine base (EB) and H⁺ doped polyaniline in 1 mol/L LiPF₆/(EC-EMC-DMC), respectively. PH, PLI and PHLI were all characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry. With 1 mol/L LiPF₆/(EC-EMC-DMC) as electrolyte, PH, PHLI and PLI were used as the active materials of symmetric non-aqueous redox supercapacitors. PLI shows the highest initial specific capacitance of 120 F/g (47 F/g for PH and 66 F/g for PHLI) among three samples. After 500 cycles, the specific capacitance of PLI remains 75 F/g, indicating the good cycleability.

Keywords

polyaniline nanofibre / redox supercapacitor / interfacial polymerization / lithium salt doping