Silver nanoparticle decorated polyaniline/multiwalled super-short carbon nanotube nanocomposites for supercapacitor applications

Abstract

In order to increase the utilization of the closed pore volumes of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), multilayer super-short carbon nanotubes (SSCNTs) have been synthesized by tailoring the raw multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with a simple ultrasonic oxidation-cut method. Then silver nanoparticles with high dispersion on the surface of the hybrid nanocomposites (SSCNTs/PANI/Ag) consisting of SSCNTs with polyaniline were acquired by reduction of silver nitrate with Vitamin C. It is found that the final composite exhibits excellent capacitive performance with a specific capacitance as high as 615 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹ which is much higher than that of PANI (316 F g⁻¹) and PANI/Ag (454 F g⁻¹). Moreover, it also shows better electrical conductivity (18.5 S cm⁻¹). The greatly enhanced capacitive performance of the nanocomposite is mainly attributed to the introduction of silver nanoparticles, which can increase the electrical conductivities of the nanocomposites and promote the electron transfer between the active components. Furthermore, the open-ended pipes of SSCNTs provide abundant additional transport paths and a short axial dimension so that it can shorten the transmission distance for the electrolyte ions and electrons in the electrode. This study suggests that SSCNTs/PANI/Ag is a promising class of electrode material for high performance energy storage applications.