In situ synthesis of polyaniline/sodium carboxymethyl cellulose nanorods for high-performance redox supercapacitors

Polyaniline/sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (PANI/CMC) nanorods have been synthesized via in-situ oxidation polymerization of aniline in the presence of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as a polymerization template. The structure and morphology of the nanorods are characterized by TEM, FE-SEM and XRD. The size and shape of the composite nanorods are uniform with a diameter of 100 nm. Their electrochemical properties are also investigated using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge measurement. The specific capacitance of PANI/CMC nanorods prepared with 20 wt% CMC can be as high as 451.25 F g−1. Its capacitance remains higher than 300 F g−1 after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A g−1. These novel nanorods are desirable for applications in supercapacitor devides.

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► Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose is employed as a polymerization oriented agent.
► Uniform diameters about 100 nm polyaniline/sodium carboxymethyl cellulose nanorods are obtained by a facile method.
► This novel nanorods for supercapacitors showed enhanced specific capacitance and cycling stability than pure polyaniline.