Soft template interfacial growth of novel ultralong polypyrrole nanowires for electrochemical energy storage

• An aqueous/organic interface reaction with soft template was employed in this paper.
• Novel ultralong interconnected PPy nanowire was prepared.
• Hybrid structured (nanowires & nanoparticles) PPy presented better capacitance behavior.

In this paper, novel ultralong interconnected polypyrrole (PPy) nanowires were synthesized by an interfacial reaction of pyrrole in organic phase and ammonium persulfate in aqueous phase using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as soft template. The morphology of as prepared PPy was investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The electrochemical performance of as prepared PPy was evaluated as electrode materials for electrochemical capacitor by the means of cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It was shown that the size and morphology of as prepared PPy can be optionally controlled by varying the concentration of CTAB in aqueous phase, and CTAB concentration played a crucial role in improving the electrochemical performances of as prepared PPy nanowire at high charge/discharge rate. In the presence of 6.25 ∼ 12.5 mM CTAB, ultralong interconnected PPy nanowire bonded with spherical PPy nanoparticles can be perfectly prepared. The diameter of PPy nanowire was in the range of 20 to 100 nm with length up to about several micrometers. A higher specific capacitance was obtained up to 328.7 F g−1 at current density of 0.3 A g−1. 75.7% of initial capacitance was retained even after 600 cycles at current density of 1.0 A g−1.

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