High-performance supercapacitors using graphene/polyaniline composites deposited on kitchen sponge

We in this study used a commercial grade kitchen sponge as the scaffold where both graphene platelets (GnPs) and polyaniline (PANi) nanorods were deposited. The high electrical conductivity of GnPs (1460 S cm −1 ) enhances the pseudo-capacitive performance of PANi grown vertically on the GnPs basal planes; the interconnected pores of the sponge provide sufficient inner surface between the GnPs/PANi composite and the electrolyte, which thus facilitates ion diffusion during charge and discharge processes. When the composite electrode was used to build a supercapacitor with two-electrode configuration, it exhibited a specific capacitance of 965.3 F g −1 at a scan rate of 10 mV s −1 in 1.0 M H 2 SO 4 solution. In addition, the composite Nyquist plot showed no semicircle at high frequency corresponding to a low equivalent series resistance of 0.35 Ω . At 100 mV s −1 , the supercapacitor demonstrated an energy density of 34...

Mahmoud Moussa, Maher F El-Kady, Hao Wang, Andrew Michimore, Qinqin Zhou, Jian Xu, Peter Majeswki and Jun Ma

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