(230f) Porous Polyaniline Nanofiber/Graphene Mutilayer Electrodes for Energy Storage

Polyaniline (PANI), one of the most extensively studied conducting polymers, is a good candidate for electrode materials for energy storage application due to its high theoretical capacity (294 mAh/g), low cost and ease of synthesis. However, the performance of PANI electrode was not satisfactory so far. For example, its cycling stability is quite low due to gradual oxidation of PANI during cycling. In order to enhance its electrochemical performances, the development of hybrid electrode materials is urgent.

Graphene have been attracted great attention for energy storage applications due to its excellent properties such as high conductivity and high surface area. Most commonly, graphene is produced from graphene oxide by chemical reduction using toxic reducing agents. In addition, chemically reduced graphene oxide has limited processability because of strong pi-pi interactions between graphene layers. This limited processability hampers its wide application for synthesizing hybrid materials.

Here, we demonstrate porous polyaniline nanofiber (PANI-NF)/graphene multilayer electrodes using layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly for energy storage systems. In order to circumvent the limited processability of reduce graphene oxide, graphene oxide was directly used to build up PANI-NF/GO LbL films followed by electrochemical reduction. PANI-NF/electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) LbL electrodes shows exceptionally high capacity, specific energy, and specific power. The PANI-NF/ERGO LbL electrodes also possess remarkably enhanced cycling stability as compared to PANI-NFs alone. The results suggest that our porous PANI-NF/ERGO LbL electrodes are promising electrodes for high performance energy storage systems.