Electrochemical reduced graphene oxide-polyaniline as effective nanocomposite film for high-performance supercapacitor applications

•PANI nanospherical are grown on ERGO layer by CV electrodeposition.•The application of ERGO-PANI nanocomposites for supercapacitors studies systematically.•The as-synthesized nanocomposites of ERGO-PANI show good electrochemical property and cycling stability.•Performance of ERGO-PANI nanocompsites were improved by synergistic effects between two components.

In this paper, high performance supercapacitor based on electrochemical reduced graphene oxide (ERGO)-polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposite film was prepared in facile two steps. ERGO sheets synthesized on surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by an effective and environment-friendly electrochemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO), followed PANI formed on ERGO surface via cyclic voltammetry electrodeposition at potential window −0.20 to 0.80 V at a scan rate of 50 mV s−1. Electrochemical results indicate that ERGO-PANI nanocomposites exhibit a good capacitance performance with maximum specific capacitance of 1084 Fg−1, and high specific energy density of 53.12 Wh kg−1 with specific power density of 500.61 W kg−1 at a current density of 3.22 mA cm−2 in 1 M H2SO4 aqueous solution. Improved electrochemical performance of the nanocomposites arises from synergistic combination of electrically conductive ERGO and highly capacitive behavior of PANI. Therefore, the ERGO-PANI nanocomposite electrodes are promising candidate for application in energy storage devices. Moreover, the products have been successfully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Graphical abstractThe increasing societal demands for portable electronics vehicles prompted researchers to develop electrochemical energy storage systems such as supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries. Supercapacitors has been renowned as one of the most next generation energy storage devices due to its long cycle life high power density and. Therefore, in this study, we reported the synthesis electrochemical reduced graphene oxide (ERGO)-polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites as supercapacitors.Download high-res image (189KB)Download full-size image