Affiliations 

  • 1 Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, SIST, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • 3 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 4 Graphene & Advanced 2D Materials Research Group (GAMRG), School of Science and Technology, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya, Selangor 47500, Malaysia
  • 5 Centre for Ionics University of Malaya, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 6 Deanship of Scientific Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 7 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Polymers (Basel), 2020 Nov 27;12(12).
PMID: 33261072 DOI: 10.3390/polym12122816

Abstract

In this study, silver (Ag) and cobalt oxide (Co3O4) decorated polyaniline (PANI) fibers were prepared by the combination of in-situ aniline oxidative polymerization and the hydrothermal methodology. The morphology of the prepared Ag/Co3O4@PANI ternary nanocomposite was studied by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, while the structural studies were carried out by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The morphological characterization revealed fibrous shaped PANI, coated with Ag and Co3O4 nanograins, while the structural studies revealed high purity, good crystallinity, and slight interactions among the constituents of the Ag/Co3O4@PANI ternary nanocomposite. The electrochemical performance studies revealed the enhanced performance of the Ag/Co3O4@PANI nanocomposite due to the synergistic/additional effect of Ag, Co3O4 and PANI compared to pure PANI and Co3O4@PANI. The addition of the Ag and Co3O4 provided an extended site for faradaic reactions leading to the high specific capacity. The Ag/Co3O4@PANI ternary nanocomposite exhibited an excellent specific capacity of 262.62 C g-1 at a scan rate of 3 mV s-1. The maximum energy and power density were found to be 14.01 Wh kg-1 and 165.00 W kg-1, respectively. The cyclic stability of supercapattery (Ag/Co3O4@PANI//activated carbon) consisting of a battery type electrode demonstrated a gradual increase in specific capacity with a continuous charge-discharge cycle until ~1000 cycles, then remained stable until 2500 cycles and later started decreasing, thereby showing the cyclic stability of 121.03% of its initial value after 3500 cycles.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.