Dulse-derived porous carbon-polyaniline nanocomposite electrode for high-performance supercapacitors

Dulse-derived porous carbon (DDPC)-polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites were fabricated by a method based on the in situ chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline on DDPC. The characterization of the material showed that the nano-PANI was grown on the surface of DDPC in the form of nanosticks or nanoparticles. The DDPC-PANI nanocomposites were further used as electrode materials for energy-storage applications. Meanwhile, the effect of the amount of aniline on the electrochemical performance of DDPC-PANI was also investigated. The results show that a maximum specific capacitance of 458 F/g was achieved for the DDPC-PANI nanocomposites; this was higher than that of the DDPC electrode (218 F/g), and the PANI electrode (318 F/g). The specific capacitance of DDPC-PANI remained 66.0% of the initial value after 5000 cycles; this was higher than that of PANI (50.5%). Finally, a device of DDPC-PANI-activated carbon (AC) was assembled with DDPC-PANI as a positive electrode, which exhibited a high energy density of 9.02 W h/kg, which was higher than that of PANI-AC device. (C) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.