Natural source derived carbon paper supported conducting polymer nanowire arrays for high performance supercapacitors

Free-standing electrode materials have shown important application in supercapacitors. In this paper, a low cost and large scale producible carbon paper (CP) was prepared by the carbonization of cellulose paper. Self-supported conducting polymer composites were fabricated by in situ polymerization of aniline on the resulting CP substrate. The morphology and structure of the as-prepared polyaniline/carbon paper (PANI/CP) composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and an automatic N₂ adsorption instrument. PANI/CP hybrids could be directly built into electrodes without adding polymer binders and conductive agents. The capacitance performance of PANI/CP electrodes was systematically studied with cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. PANI/CP hybrids showed a high specific capacitance of 1090.8 F g⁻¹ along with low resistance and good stability. All the results indicated the prepared PANI/CP hybrids were promising electrode materials for supercapacitors.