Effects of surface coating with polyaniline on electrochemical properties of La–Mg–Ni-based electrode alloys

• PANI coatings are deposited on alloy surface by electroless deposition.
• The PANI coatings increase the cycle life and decrease the HRD.
• The cyclic stability is improved from 81.6% to 87.5% after PANI deposition.
• The maximum discharge capacity reaches up to 391.8 mAh g−1.

The effects of surface coating with polyaniline on electrochemical properties of La0.8Mg0.2Ni3.4Al0.1 electrode alloys were studied in this paper. The flake-shaped polyaniline coatings were deposited on the surface of La0.8Mg0.2Ni3.4Al0.1 alloy powders by electrodeless deposition. Electrochemical studies showed that the discharge capacity increased to 391.8 mAh g−1 after surface modification with polyaniline, compared to 382.5 mAh g−1 for the bare alloys. The cyclic stability over 100 cycles improved from 81.6% to 87.5%. Also, the kinetic properties were investigated in detail.