Polyaniline nanofibers confined into graphene oxide architecture for high-performance supercapacitors

Due to its chemical stability, excellent reversibility and high pseudocapacitance, polyaniline (PANI) has attracted extensive attention for supercapacitors. However, the poor rate performance of PANI-based materials limits their large-scale application. Here, we report a facile strategy to fabricate PANI nano-fibers confined into graphene oxide architecture (PGA50) through the adsorption of aniline onto stacked graphene oxide sheets and consequent in-situ polymerization. Benefited from the synergistic effect of PANI nanofibers and graphene oxide sheets, the sandwiched PGA50 has efficient electron/ion transfer pathways with stable structural framework. As a result, PGA50 electrode shows a high capacitance of 780 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) and excellent rate performance (521 F g(-1) at 50 A g(-1)) compared to PANI (323 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) and 120 F g(-1) at 50 A g(-1)). Significantly, the assembled PGA50//PGA50 super-capacitor achieves a high energy density of 30 Wh kg(-1) at a power density of 216 W kg(-1). (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.