Highly dispersed carbon nanotube/polypyrrole core/shell composites with improved electrochemical capacitive performance

Highly dispersed polypyrrole (PPy) is firstly designed for decorating onto the surface of pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), then used in the facile synthesis of a CNT/PPy core/shell composite, which provides a potential application for further modification as a base-material due to its high dispersibility. The hybrid material with a PPy shell thickness of 1.61 nm displayed a high specific capacitance of 276.3 F g(-1) in 1M KCl electrolyte, four times higher than pristine CNT. Such an improvement in performance is closely correlated with the integrated advantage of the decorated PPy shell, which enhanced the dispersibility and active surface area.