The ordered polyaniline nanowires wrapped on the polypyrrole nanotubes as electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage

Conductive polymers can act as the supercapacitor electrode materials which have great potential appli-cations in small energy storage devices. In this article, the polypyrrole (PPy) hollow nanotubes had been prepared by a simple chemical synthesis method, and then the ordered polyaniline (PANI) nanowires can be wrapped on PPy hollow nanotubes by a dilute solution method to form the PPy@PANI compos-ites. The as-prepared PANI nanowires orderedly grew onto the surface of PPy hollow nanotubes, which was beneficial to the ions diffusion from a bulky solution to the surface of active materials when it was used as the supercapacitor electrode. The highest specific capacitance of PPy@PANI nanotubes electrode was about 765 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s, and the capacitance loss was only 13.7% after 10 0 0 charg-ing/discharging cycles. It was superior or close to many reported PPy/PANI composites based electrodes. Moreover, the PPy@PANI nanotubes possessed higher specific capacitance and better long-life cycle sta-bility than individual pure PPy nanotubes and PANI, exhibiting a synergistic effect of PPy and PANI. This study can give a guide to prepare combined functional conductive polymers/nanomaterials used in su-percapacitor. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, PPy@PANI composite materials with excellent electrochemical performance were prepared by a simple chemical synthesis method. The composite showed superior specific capacitance and better cycling stability compared to many reported PPy/PANI composites. The synergistic effect of PPy and PANI was demonstrated in the enhanced performance of the PPy@PANI composite materials.