Hierarchical porous polyaniline-silsesquioxane conjugated hybrids with enhanced electrochemical capacitance

We prepared multi-armed polyaniline-silsesquioxane conjugates (PANI-SQ) with hierarchical porous structure by introducing various amounts of octa-aminophenylsilsesquioxane (OASQ). A rapid-mixing-dilute polymerization reaction was used to synthesize PANI-SQ. PANI-SQ conjugates were characterized by a set of methods, including FTIR, UV-vis, N-2 adsorption measurement, wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WXRD), TEM and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). These conjugates exhibited a high surface area (122.69 m(2) g(-1)) and an average pore width of 1.6 nm, which was significantly lower than that of the pure PANI (29.1 nm). By increasing the mass of OASQ, a decrease in crystallinity and in electrical conductivity can be observed. For PANI-SQ conjugates, FE-SEM and TEM images revealed that interconnected porous nanofiber networks have been formed with a nanofiber diameter of 10-30 nm because of the incorporation of OASQ onto the skeleton. The as-synthesized PANI-SQ conjugate exhibited excellent specific capacitance and stability, suggesting its potential use as electrode material.