A novel 3D conductive network-based polyaniline/graphitic mesoporous carbon composite electrode with excellent electrochemical performance

A three-dimensional conductive network-based ordered polyaniline (PANI) nanorods/graphitic mesoporous carbon (GMC) composite is successfully fabricated by the introduction of PANI into a low-cost GMC with a highly fluffy and porous structure, and the effects of the GMC content on the electrochemical performance are investigated using the as-prepared composite as active material. Results show that the unique structure of the composite is beneficial to ion and electron transport as well as redox reactions during charge-discharge process. The composite containing 15 wt% GMC exhibits a high specific capacitance of 715 F g(-1) at a current density of 1 A g(-1) and remains 429 F g(-1) at 10 A g(-1) (60.0% retention). Furthermore, the composite shows excellent cycling stability with a high capacitance retention of up to 93.6% at 100 mV s(-1) after 10000 cycles, and exhibits a coulombic efficiency in excess of 90% after 2500 cycles at a current density of 3 A g(-1). More importantly, the composite presents a high energy density of 24.64 W h kg(-1) at a power density of 250 W kg(-1) and 13.79 W h kg(-1) at 5000 W kg(-1), which is highly competitive with other reported PANI/carbon composite electrodes.