Chemical versus Electrochemical Synthesis of Carbon Nano-onion/Polypyrrole Composites for Supercapacitor Electrodes

The development of high-surface-area carbon electrodes with a defined pore size distribution and the incorporation of pseudo-active materials to optimize the overall capacitance and conductivity without destroying the stability are at present important research areas. Composite electrodes of carbon nano-onions (CNOs) and polypyrrole (Ppy) were fabricated to improve the specific capacitance of a supercapacitor. The carbon nanostructures were uniformly coated with Ppy by chemical polymerization or by electrochemical potentiostatic deposition to form homogenous composites or bilayers. The materials were characterized by transmission-and scanning electron microscopy, differential thermogravimetric analyses, FTIR spectroscopy, piezoelectric microgravimetry, and cyclic voltammetry. The composites show higher mechanical and electrochemical stabilities, with high specific capacitances of up to about 800 Fg(-1) for the CNOs/SDS/Ppy composites (chemical synthesis) and about 1300 Fg(-1) for the CNOs/Ppy bilayer (electrochemical deposition).