Graphene-Polythiophene Nanocomposite as Novel Supercapacitor Electrode Material

Abstract

The graphene (G)-polythiophene (PTh) nanocomposite was synthesized by a chemical oxidative polymerization technique and characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), Raman Spectroscopy, Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray-diffraction (XRD), Electrochemical Impedance spectroscopy(EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) techniques. The electrochemical properties of G-PTh nanocomposite supercapacitor electrodes were investigated in different electrolytes solutions and a specific discharge capacitance of 154 F/g was estimated from different charge/discharge current cycles. Our proposed research is transformative as the G-conducting polymer based electrode material with unique and excellent properties, such as, high conductivity, wider tunable potential window, high stability of the electrode material in doped form, faster charge transfer rate, and short charging times, that allows the fabrication of high performance supercapacitors for practical applications.

Graphene‐Based Nanocomposites for Energy Storage

“…Graphene–PTh nanocomposites and graphene–PTh derivatives have also been reported as pseudocapacitor materials . graphene–PEDOT and graphene–PHTh nanocomposites have showed specific capacitances of 800–1100 F g −1 at a current density of 0.1 A g −1 .…”

Graphene–MnO2 nanocomposite for high-performance asymmetrical electrochemical capacitor

“…In general, carbon-based materials with high-surface-area are usually used as the electrodes of the EDLC, which stores energy by forming a double layer of electrolyte ions on a conductive surface [4,5]. On the other hand, pseudocapacitor depends on the fast and reversible redox reaction at the electrode surface for charge storage, and transition-metal oxides such as ruthenium oxide, nickel oxide, manganese oxide [6][7][8] as well as electrically conductive polymers such as polyanilines, polypyrroles, and polythiophenes [9][10][11] can be used as the active electrode materials. Although the pseudocapacitor electrode materials have large specific capacitance (about 300-1000 F g À1 ), the lower operating voltages and limited cycle life prevent the widespread applications of pseudocapacitors [8,12].…”

Electrochemical copolymerization of N-methylpyrrole and 2,2′-bithitiophene; characterization, micro-capacitor study, and equivalent circuit model evaluation

“…For the last thirty years, conducting polymers have attracted considerable interest for the development of advanced materials due to the structure and property of the polymer, which changes from a doped state as a conductor or an undoped (neutral) state as an insulator or semiconductor (McCullough 1998;Skotheim et al 1998;Zhang et al 1999Zhang et al , 2000. These compounds are organic materials that generally possess an extended conjugated π-electron system along a polymer backbone, such as polypyrroles (PPy) (De Bruyne et al 1997;Volpi et al 2012), polyanilines (Dalmolin et al 2005;Tuan et al 2012), polycarbazoles (Saraswathi et al 1999;Zhoor et al 2009;Pokhnel et al 2012) and polythiophenes (Akoudad and Roncali 1999;Mahmoudian et al 2011;Alvi et al 2012).…”