Electrochemical and electrical performances of cobalt chloride (CoCl2) doped polyaniline (PANI)/graphene nanoplate (GNP) composite

The present study represents a simple and scalable method that involves in situ polymerization of cobalt chloride (CoCl2 center dot 6H(2)O) doped aniline in the presence of graphene nanoplates (GNPs) in HCl medium, for the preparation of CoCl2 doped polyaniline (PANI)/GNP composites (PGC) as a supercapacitor electrode material with noteworthy performance. The maximum specific capacitance and energy density of the PGC composites were found to be approximate to 634 F g (1) and approximate to 427 W h kg (1), respectively, at a 10 mV s (1) scan rate. Through judicious control of the GNP content and CoCl2 doped PANI in the composites, a very high electrical conductivity (approximate to 12.2 S cm(-1)) was achieved at unprecedented low GNP content. The PGC composites also exhibited high alternating current (AC) electrical conductivity in the frequency region of similar to 10(1) to similar to 10(7) Hz. The morphology of the composites was successfully studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM).