Nanostructured hybrid graphene-conducting polymers for electrochemical supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract

Recently, advanced nanohybrid electrodes based on graphene-conducting polymers have shown a rapid growth in electrochemical energy storage (EES) systems, such as fuel cells, batteries, and supercapacitors. The supercapacitors are unique among the EES systems due to their long cycle life, high power density, and environmental compatibility. The mitigation of the drawbacks of electrode materials for supercapacitor applications, such as low energy density and fast self-discharge due to leakage current, is the focus of extensive research at the present time. Transition metal oxides (ruthenium oxides, manganese oxide, etc.) and conducting polymers (polyaniline, polypyrrole, and polythiophene) have been studied extensively with carbon-based materials as nanocomposites to address some of these issues related to supercapacitors. In the manuscript, we present the applications of (G)-CPs nanocomposite materials, such as G-polyanilines (G-PANIs), G-poly(pyrrole) (G-PPY), G-poly(hexylthiophene) (G-PHTh), and G-poly(3-4 ethylenedioxythiophene) (G-PEDOT), as supercapacitor electrodes. The G-PANIs, G-PPY, G-PHTh, and G-PEDOT electrode materials were synthesized chemically using the oxidative polymerization method and characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), and Raman spectroscope techniques. The electrochemical behavior of various G-CP electrode materials for supercapacitor applications have been understood using cyclic voltammetry, charging-discharging, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The studied G-CPbased nanocomposite electrode-based supercapacitors hold great promise for the use in future commercial applications.