Supercapacitors Based On Polyaniline Encapsulated Inside Carbon Nanotube Porous Membranes By In-situ Electrochemical Polymerization

Conducting polymer-based supercapacitor materials having the advantages of lower cost, lower internal resistance and larger capacity, raised widespread concern of many scholars. However, the serious volumetric change of electronically conducting polymers(ECPs) during cyclic charging-discharging process originates the decrease of the capacitance and progressive degradation of the electrode. Herein we introduce a new strategy of a flexible supercapacitor device based on conducting polyaniline(PANI) nanowires confined within a 10nm-diameter multiwall carbon nanotube(MWCNT) porous membrane. The PANI nanowires with the diameter of 8 nm and the aspect ratio over 100 are preciously deposited inside the hollow channel of MWCNTs through an in-situ electropolymerization method. The conductive graphitic walls of CNTs provide a good shield for the conducting polymers as well as an efficient path for the electron transfer. More importantly the confined CNT nano channels will depress the structure changes of the PANI during repeated charging-discharging cycles. Such conducting polymers encapsulated inside MWCNTs have significa nt potentials to construct thin, light-weight and flexible supercapacitor devices with a good electrochemical capacitance(356 mFcm-2) at a current density(1 mAcm-2) and considerable stability(capacity loss less than 5% after 1000 cyclic voltammograms)...