Preparation And Electrochemical Performance Of Polyaniline-Based Carbon Nanotubes As Electode For Supercapcitor

In our fast-developing society, especially in the background for the exhausting of oil, coal, natural gas and other traditional energy sources, new energy and energy devices are attracting much more attention. Supercapacitor is a new energy storage device between a traditional capacitor and battery, which possesses a much larger specific energy than the conventional capacitor, much higher power density than battery, good cycle efficiency and long cycle life (100,000 cycles).This work focuses on the preparation and electrochemical performance of a specific nitrogen-containing carbon nanotubes (CNTs)- polyaniline (PANI)-based CNTs as electrode material for supercapacitor. In our experiment, PANI with the tubular shape was synthesized by a rapidly mixed reaction, and then nitrogen-containing CNTs were prepared through high temperature treatment. It was found that PANI can maintain the original tubular morphology after heat treatment. PANI-based CNTs possess the diameter of about 100 nm and length of several micrometers with two open ends and low specific surface area. When PANI-based CNTs were used as the electrode materials for supercapacitor, they exhibit the high specific capacity and good cyclic stability, especially PANI-700 possesses the capacitance of 163 F·g-1 at the current density of 0.1 A·g-1. The chemical state and content of nitrogen in PANI-based CNTs by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were investigated systematically to account for the reasons why PANI-based nanotubes have higher specific capacitance. The chemical composition and state of samples were measured by XPS in order to explain the reason for good electrochemical performance. The presence of pyrrole or pryridone (400.5 eV, N-5) and quaternary nitrogen (401 eV, N-Q) is beneficial for the improvement of electron mobility and the wettability of electrode.