Three-dimensional hollow balls of graphene–polyaniline hybrids for supercapacitor applications

• We fabricated 3D-hollow balls of graphene and polyaniline hybrids (3D-HBGP).
• The porous microstructure of 3D-HBGP exhibited an enhanced electrochemical performance.
• We have also demonstrated flexible supercapacitors based on 3D-HBGP electrodes.

Three-dimensional hollow balls of graphene and polyaniline (3D-HBGP) hybrid were fabricated through the self-assembly of graphene oxide (GO) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles, followed by the polymerization of polyaniline (PANI) and removal of the core PMMA particles. Using the resulted unique porous microstructures, the supercapacitor based on the 3D-HBGP electrodes exhibited an enhanced electrochemical performance, including the specific capacitance and cycling stability. The 3D-HBGP electrodes showed an enhanced specific capacitance of 331 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 and excellent cycling stability with a 14% loss of the capacitance after 500 charging–discharging cycles. Furthermore, due to the mechanical stability of 3D-HBGP, we have demonstrated flexible supercapacitors using the 3D-HBGP electrodes, which exhibited a specific capacitance of 182 F g−1 at the bending state with good cycling stability.

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