Rational design of polyaniline/MnO2/carbon cloth ternary hybrids as electrodes for supercapacitors

Two types of ternary composites were fabricated by reversing the deposition sequence of polyaniline (PANI) and MnO2 layers on plasma treated carbon cloth (m-CC), i.e., PANI@MnO2@m-CC and MnO2@PANI@m-CC. By comparison, PANI@MnO2@m-CC displayed a unique porous structure and possessed a better electrochemical performance than that of MnO2@PANI@m-CC. The morphological transformation of MnO2 petals into nanoparticles while anchoring PANI nanorods increases the interactions between the two pseudoactive materials. An asymmetric supercapacitor was fabricated by using PANI@MnO2@m-CC as the positive electrode and activated microwave exfoliated graphite oxide ('a-MEGO')@m-CC as the negative electrode. The asymmetric supercapacitor showed a maximum energy density of 33.9 W h kg(-1) (at a power density of 319.0 W kg(-1)) and power density of 17.2 kW kg(-1) (at an energy density of 14.3 W h kg(-1)) at an operating voltage of 2.0 V, suggesting PANI@MnO2@m-CC is a promising electrode candidate for supercapacitors.