A novel high performance poly (2-methyl thioaniline) based composite electrode for supercapacitors application

Over the last decade there has been an increasing worldwide demand for electrochemically active materials for supercapacitor applications. In this study, a novel PANI derivative, poly (2-methyl thioaniline) coated MWCNT (PMTA@CNT) and its composite with graphene (PMTA@CNT/RGO) have been explored for supercapacitor application. Both the PMTA@CNT and PMTA@CNT/RGO electrodes showed much higher specific capacitances of about 522 F g−1 and 616 F g−1, respectively in 6 M KOH electrolyte at a current density of 1 A g−1. These results are about 36% and 28% higher compared to the PANI@CNT and PANI@CNT/RGO, respectively, which were prepared by same synthesis route as that of PMTA based electrode. The excellent electrochemical performance of the PMTA based composite electrode compared to PANI based composite electrode is due to the presence of very good electron donating group (SCH3) in PMTA that makes the PMTA molecule electronically rich through resonance effect which helps to facilitate the charge-transfer between the two components through the π electrons of the quinoid rings in PMTA and the benzenoid rings of carbon nanotubes or graphene. Therefore, PMTA composite electrode with good capacitive behaviour encourages its use to compete with PANI composite based electrode.

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