Mesoporous polyaniline film on ultra-thin graphene sheets for high performance supercapacitors

A facile approach has been developed to fabricate mesoporous PANI film on ultra-thin graphene nanosheet (G-mPANI) hybrid by in situ polymerization using graphene-mesoporous silica composite as template. Due to its mesoporous structure, over-all conductive network, G-mPANI electrode displays a specific capacitance of 749 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) with excellent rate capability (remains 73% even at 5.0 A g(-1)), much higher than that of pristine PANI electrode (315 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1), 39% retention at 5.0 A g(-1)) in 1 mol L-1 H2SO4 aqueous solution. more interestingly, the G-mPANI hybrid can maintain 88% of its initial capacitance compared to 45% for pristine PANI after 1000 cycles, suggesting a superior electrochemical cyclic stability. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.