Electrochemical Synthesis of Functionalized Graphene/Polyaniline Composite Using Two Electrode Configuration for Supercapacitors

Abstract

An effective approach for the large-scale fabrication of conducting polyaniline (PANI) using in situ anodic electrochemical polymerization on nickel foam which had been coated in aryl diazonium salt (ADS)-modified graphene (ADS-G). In the present work, ADS-G was used as a high surface-area support material for the electrochemical polymerization of PANI. The electrochemical performances of the ADS-G/PANI composites exhibited better suitability as supercapacitor electrode materials than those of the PANI. The ADS-G/PANI composites achieved a specific capacitance of 528 F g−1, which was higher than that of PANI (266 F g−1) due to excellent electrode–electrolyte interaction and the synergistic effect of electrical conductivity between ADS-G and PANI in the composites. These findings suggest that the ADS-G/PANI composites are a suitable composite for potential supercapacitor applications.

Keywords

• aryl diazonium salt-functionalized graphene (ADS-G)
• ADS-G/PANI composites
• electrochemical polymerization
• supercapacitor