Toward interconnected hierarchical porous structure via chemical depositing organic nano-polyaniline on inorganic carbon scaffold for supercapacitor

• The composites of organic nano-polyanine (nano-PANI)/interconnected inorganic carbon scaffold (C-scaffold) were prepared via in-situ chemical polymerization.
• The composite possesses an interconnected porous network structure.
• The maximum capacitance can reach 239 F g−1 and the composite has good cycle stability and lower resistance for supercapacitor application.
• The effects of reaction time and amount of ANI were investigated.

In this article, the composites of organic nano-polyaniline (nano-PANI)/interconnected inorganic carbon scaffold (C-scaffold) were prepared via in-situ chemical polymerization. The structures and morphologies were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and the electrochemical behaviors were carried out in 1 M H2SO4 aqueous solution. SEM and FTIR characterizations reveal that nano-PANI are successfully introduced on the surface of C-scaffold; and electrochemical tests indicate that the nano-PANI/C-scaffold composite presents a high specific capacitance of 239 F g−1 and lower resistance compared to pure PANI. It is interested that the prepared composite nano-PANI/C-scaffold has a good long-term cyclic stability (≈70% remain of initial capacitance after 1000 cycles). These results reveal that nano-PANI/C-scaffold combine the high pseudocapacitance of polyaniline and the ideal electrochemical behavior of C-scaffold.