Excellent Electrochemical Performances of Intrinsic Polyaniline Nanofibers Fabricated by Electrochemical Deposition

Abstract

A simple route to synthesize the polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers with diameter about 150 nm was reported. In this strategy, the PANI nanofibers were fabricated by electrochemical deposition by using two-electrode configuration in 0.01 M aniline and 0.01 M H₂SO₄ electrolytes. The as-prepared materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The electrochemical properties of the PANI nanofibers electrode as supercapacitor materials were investigated. The PANI nanofibers electrode showed high capacitance of 485 F·g^-1 at 0.1 A·g^-1, and the decrease in the specific capacitance is about 3.5% in 1 000 cycles. The results indicate that the PANI nanofibers electrode shows high stability and retains its electrochemical capacitance property over 1 000 cycles, suggesting PANI nanofibers have promising applications in high-performance supercapacitors.

Keywords

polyaniline / nanofibers / nanostructured electrodes / electrochemical capacitors

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