Toward interconnected hierarchical porous structure via chemical depositing organic nano-polyaniline on inorganic carbon scaffold for supercapacitor

•The composites of organic nano-polyanine (nano-PANI)/interconnected inorganic carbon scaffold (C-scaffold) were prepared via in-situ chemical polymerization.•The composite possesses an interconnected porous network structure.•The maximum capacitance can reach 239 F g−1 and the composite has good cycle stability and lower resistance for supercapacitor application.•The effects of reaction time and amount of ANI were investigated.

In this article, the composites of organic nano-polyaniline (nano-PANI)/interconnected inorganic carbon scaffold (C-scaffold) were prepared via in-situ chemical polymerization. The structures and morphologies were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and the electrochemical behaviors were carried out in 1 M H2SO4 aqueous solution. SEM and FTIR characterizations reveal that nano-PANI are successfully introduced on the surface of C-scaffold; and electrochemical tests indicate that the nano-PANI/C-scaffold composite presents a high specific capacitance of 239 F g−1 and lower resistance compared to pure PANI. It is interested that the prepared composite nano-PANI/C-scaffold has a good long-term cyclic stability (≈70% remain of initial capacitance after 1000 cycles). These results reveal that nano-PANI/C-scaffold combine the high pseudocapacitance of polyaniline and the ideal electrochemical behavior of C-scaffold.