Synergistic capacitive behavior between polyaniline and carbon black

Polyaniline (PANi) is an excellent electrode material with high pseudocapacitance for supercapacitors. Here the binder-free supercapacitor electrodes with high specific capacitance (458 Fg(-1) at 2 mVs(-1)) and Coulombic efficiency (100%) are successfully synthesized via a one-step potentialdynamic co-deposition of PANi and carbon black (CB). Significant synergistic effect between PANi and CB is demonstrated. Particularly, CB as the secondary dopant of PANi has been found to play an important role in producing higher conductivity, extended conformation structure, improved porosity, higher oxidation state and depressed hydrolysis effect, leading to superior capacitive performance. This promotes better understanding about synergistic effect between active materials and carbon additives, and opens up new research direction for high performance electrode design. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.