Core-sheath structured bacterial cellulose/polypyrrole nanocomposites with excellent conductivity as supercapacitors

Core-sheath structured conductive nanocomposites were prepared by wrapping a homogenous layer of polypyrrole (PPy) around bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers via in situ polymerization of self-assembled pyrrole. By manipulating the ordered core-sheath nanostructure, BC/PPy nanocomposites were achieved and outstanding electrical conductivity as high as 77 S cm(-1) was obtained with the optimized reaction protocols, i.e., feeding mass ratio of BC/Py 1 : 10, molar ratio of FeCl3/Py 0.5 : 1, molar ratio of HCl/Py 1.2 : 1, volume ratio of DMF-H2O 1 : 2, reaction temperature 0 degrees C, and reaction time 6 h. The BC/PPy nanocomposites demonstrated promising potential for supercapacitors, with a highest mass specific capacitance hitting 316 F g(-1) at 0.2 A g(-1) current density. The whole-optimized protocol in preparing highly conductive PPy/BC composites may be readily extended to the preparation of new conductive materials based on core-sheath structured BC nanocomposites for various technological applications.