Polyaniline nanowires aligned on MOFs-derived nanoporous carbon as high-performance electrodes for supercapacitor

Polyaniline, as the pseudocapacitive electrode material, has been extensively studied for supercapacitors. However, their cycling stability is limited by the structural instability arising from large volumetric swelling/shrinking, which has been the main obstacle to their practical applications. Herein, this work reports metal organic frameworks(MOFs)-derived porous carbon frameworks as the substrate and further deposit polyaniline by in situ chemical polymerization. Benefit from the structurally stable MOFs-derived porous carbon frameworks and the uniformly-deposited conducting polyaniline nanowires with controlled lengths, the synthesized MOFs-derived porous carbon/polyaniline hybrid electrode displays a maximum specific capacitance of 534.16 F g(-1) at 0.2 A g(-1) and a maximum capacitance retention of 211% at 2 A g(-1) after 20000 cycles, demonstrating promising applications for pseudocapacitive devices. The assembled semi-solid symmetrical supercapacitors delivers good electrochemical performance (energy density of 9.72 mu Wh cm(-2)) and excellent cyclic stability (94.4% at 10000 cycles), which can also power a commercial LED. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Metal organic frameworks(MOFs)-derived porous carbon frameworks were used as the substrate for in situ chemical polymerization of polyaniline, leading to a hybrid electrode with improved cycling stability and electrochemical performance. The hybrid electrode demonstrated promising applications for pseudocapacitive devices with high specific capacitance and capacitance retention after cycles, showing potential for powering commercial LED.