Fabrication of high performance conductive polymer nanocomposite using multilayer graphene ball as filler

Abstract

Conductive polymer composites are functional composite made by adding conductive fillers to polymers using a specified processing method, yielding steady and sustained electrical conductivity and capacitance. Both electrical conductivity and capacitance of polymer conductive composites greatly depend on the properties of the polymer as well as the nature of the conductive fillers. Among the various kinds of conducting polymers, polyaniline is considered as the most promising electrode material for supercapacitors, due to its excellent capacity for energy storage, easy synthesis, high conductivity, and low cost. Also three-dimensional structured graphene has emerged as a subject of enormous scientific interest due to its exceptional electron transport, mechanical properties, super capacitance and high surface area. When incorporated appropriately, these hollow graphene balls can significantly improve physical properties of host polymers at small loading. Herein, hollow graphene balls have been hybridized with polyaniline to fabricate hybrids as novel electrode materials.Hollow graphene balls have been synthesized via template-directed carbon segregation using a Ni nanoparticle (Ni-NP) template.PANI-HGB compositeswere prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline monomer in the presence of hollow grapheneballs under acid conditions.The resultant nanocomposite was characterized by employing some state-of-the-art techniques such as scanning electron microscope (SEM),transmission electron microscope (TEM),FTIR spectroscopy and electrochemical tests were carried out by cyclic voltammetry (CV). A specific capacitance of as high as 205.5 F/g at the scan rate of 5mVs-1at the scanwas achieved over a PANI-HGB composite. Based on experimental data shown in this work implies that the PANI-HGB composite possesses excellent electrochemical performance and may have potential applications in high performance energy storage devices.