Conducting polymer composites: material synthesis and applications in electrochemical capacitive energy storage

Abstract

In recent years, high efficiency, low cost and environmental friendly energy storage has drawn attention to meet the constantly escalating energy crisis. Conducting polymers in their pristine form have difficulty in achieving satisfying characteristics required for practical applications in electrochemical capacitive energy storage. Considering that conducting polymer composites have emerged as pertinent and beneficial resources for electrochemical capacitive energy storage, this review investigates the relevant topics by presenting the approaches in the design and fabrication of conducting polymer composites as electrode materials for electrochemical capacitive energy storage. The key issues for achieving optimized supercapacitive performances, such as fabricating nanostructured electrodes and tailoring microstructures of conducting polymer composites, are described and concisely discussed in this review. Finally, an outlook of the prospects and challenges in terms of synthesis and applications of conducting polymer composites for supercapacitors is presented.