Polyaniline-based carbon for a supercapacitor electrode

Abstract

Novel carbonmaterials containing heteroatoms (nitrogen and oxygen)were prepared by carbonizingH2SO4-doped polyaniline at different temperatures. The morphology, elemental composition, surface chemical composition, and surface area of the as-preparedsampleswere investigatedbyscanningelectronmicroscopy(SEM), elemental analyzer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) measurements. Electrochemical properties were studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results show that the carbon prepared by carbonizing polyaniline at 800 °has good electrochemical performance and its specific capacitance value is as high as 153 F·g-1 under a current density of 0.5 A·g-1, although it has a low specific surface area (325 m2·g-1). The high specific capacitance of this carbon is believed to be due to its proper proportion of heteroatoms (nitrogen and oxygen), which provide a large amount of pseudo-capacitance. This kind of carbon material can thus be used as a promising electrode material in supercapacitors. © Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica.