Carbon Nanofibers as Supporting Substrate for Growth of Polyaniline Nanorods on Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Nanoneedles toward Electrochemical Energy Storage
Yuanhang Gu, Junjie Ding, Guang Hu, Feng You, Shaoyun Chen, Huabo Huang, Chenglong Hu
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Iron-oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ) nanoneedles were first in situ grown on the surface of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) using hydrothermal and N 2 annealing process, and then polyaniline (PANI) was coated on the Fe 2 O 3 nanoneedles to form network-like nanorods through dilute solution polymerization. The PANI/Fe 2 O 3 /CNFs binder-free electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance of 603 F/g at 1 A/g with good rate capability. (The capacitance loss was about 48.3% when the current density increased from 1.0 to 5.0 A/g.) It was caused by the fact that the PANI/Fe 2 O 3 /CNFs with a well-connected structure could provide a continuous electron transport path and improve the conductivity of the entire electrode. The solid-state hybrid PANI/Fe 2 O 3 /CNFs∥PANI/Fe 2 O 3 /CNFs symmetric device also achieved a high energy density of 29.85 Wh/kg at a power density of 500 W/kg. This universal compatible synthetic method for the PANI/Fe 2 O 3 /CNFs electrode could extend to other supercapacitor electrode systems, making it easy to fabricate various ternary electrodes for supercapacitors.