Research group publishes article in Journal of Energy Storage
Synthesis of polyaniline-graphene oxide based ternary nanocomposite for supercapacitor application
Abstract
This study focuses on the synthesis of Polyaniline (PANI), graphene oxide (GO), and
their nanocomposites with metal oxides (MO) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) for
their application in the supercapacitor. In this study, PANI/GO, PANI/GO/TiO2, PANI/GO/MoS2
and PANI/GO/h-BN ternary nanocomposites were synthesized following a chemical oxidative
polymerization method. The prepared nanocomposites were characterized by FTIR, XRD,
TGA, SEM and electrochemical analysis. The electrochemical properties of the nanocomposites
were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), electrochemical
polarization and impedance analysis. CV profile of the nanocomposite showed that incorporation
of GO, MO and h-BN in the polyaniline backbone improved capacitance, energy density
and power density significantly. Among the synthesized ternary nanocomposites, PANI/GO/h-BN
showed highest capacitance of 946 F/g and high capacitance retention after 100 cycles
of charging and discharging. Finally, a set of hybrid asymmetric supercapacitors were
constructed using the synthesized nanocomposites as positive electrode and activated
carbon as negative electrode. The device was assessed following the GCD method. The
supercapacitor device with PANI/GO/h-BN nanocomposite as positive electrode exhibited
higher specific capacitance of 351 F/g with high power density of 4500 W/kg, and it
lit up a 5 mm LED for 243 min, indicating its superiority over other electrodes.