Design of Carbon Black/Polypyrrole Composite Hollow Nanospheres and Performance Evaluation as Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors

Well-defined carbon black/polypyrrole (CB/PPy) composite hollow nanospheres were prepared via in situ chemical oxidative interfacial polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of sulfonic acid-modified carbon black (CB-SO3H) nanoparticles with inert solvent (toluene) as the soft template, in which sodium dodecyl benzenesulfonate (SDBS) was used as both the surfactant for the emulsion and the dopant for the produced polypyrrole (PPy), as well as the CB-SO3H nanoparticles. The effects of the preparation conditions, such as the oil/water ratio and feeding ratio of the CB-SO3H nanoparticles on the morphology, electrical conductivity, and electrochemical properties of the final CB/PPy hollow nanospheres, were investigated. It was found that the CB-SO3H nanoparticles exhibited an obvious influence on the particle size, electrical conductivity, specific capacitance, and cycling stability of the CB/PPy hollow nanospheres. The highest electrical conductivity and specific capacitance of 0.045 S/cm and 29 F/g were achieved, respectively. After 1000 cycles, the attenuation in the specific capacitance was less than 5%, indicating that the CB/PPy hollow nanospheres possessed excellent cycling performance.