Alternate layer by layered self assembly of conjugated and unconjugated Salen based nanowires as capacitive pseudo supercapacitor

A novel electrosynthetic method has been introduced based on alternate layer-by-layered self-assembly of conjugated/unconjugated Salen-based nanowires as a capacitive pseudo-supercapacitor. For this purpose, a three-electrode system consisted of a glassy carbon (GC), Ag/AgCl (Sat'd Cl-) and a Pt rod as working, reference, and counter electrodes, respectively. The electrolyte included the same molar concentration (0.040 mol L-1) of each Salen monomer (as initial precursor), and KCl solution (as supporting electrolyte), besides using KOH solution (0.01 mol L-1, as basic-controlling reagent) inside acetone/water (4:1, V/V) as a solvent. The formation of this self-assembly nanowire was attributed to the control of the electrical conductivity of this polymer during formation of an organometallic complex with K+ as responsible complex forming agent. This novel nanowire then played role as a capacitive pseudo-supercapacitor. Based on the chrono-potentiometry, reproducible charge/discharge process for at least 5000 cycles was observed at a potential between - 2.00 and + 1.75 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The capacity behavior of the polymer was also evidenced using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. This synthesized polymeric nanowire was adopted as the acceptable pseudo-supercapacitor with real capacity equals to 3110 +/- 6 (n = 3) C g(-1). This study was considered as the first report at which the self-assembly of organometallic compounds as an efficient pseudo-supercapacitor was introduced.

Automated summary

A novel electrosynthetic method utilizing layer-by-layer self-assembly of Salen-based nanowires has been developed as a capacitive pseudo-supercapacitor. The polymer synthesized using this method exhibited high stability and capacity performance during charge/discharge cycling.