An Ultrafast, High‐Loading, and Durable Poly(p‐aminoazobenzene)/Reduced Graphene Oxide Composite Electrode for Supercapacitors

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 33; no. 17
• Main Authors: Ai, Zhiting, Li, Lu, Huang, Muyun, Su, Xiaofang, Gao, Yanan, Wu, Jifeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2023
• Subjects: Capacitance; Cycles; cycling stability; Diffusion rate; Electrodes; Graphene; Hydrogels; mass‐loading; Materials science; polyaniline; Polyanilines; rate capability; Self-assembly; Supercapacitors
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202211057

Although challenging, the fabricated supercapacitor electrodes with excellent rate capability, long cycling stability, and high mass‐loading are crucial for practical applications. Herein, a novel 3D porous poly(p‐aminoazobenzene)/reduced graphene oxide hydrogel is designed and prepared as an ultrafast, high‐loading, and durable pseudocapacitive electrode through a facile two‐step self‐assembly approach. Owing to abundant stable redox‐active sites, fast electrolyte diffusion, and efficient charge conduction, the PRH electrode (5 mg cm−2) shows a high specific capacitance (701 F g−1 at 2 A g−1) and ultrafast rate (97% capacitance retention at 100 A g−1). Furthermore, even with a mass‐loading of 10 mg cm−2, the electrode still exhibits comparable high performance and excellent long‐term cycling life (only 6.7% capacitance loss after 10 000 cycles). This work demonstrates novel polyaniline analog composites for constructing novel electrodes, promising to open an avenue toward practical applications. Polyaniline‐based supercapacitors are limited by poor rate capability, undesirable cycling stability, and low mass‐loading. Hence, a novel 3D polyaniline analog‐based composite is proposed as a pseudocapacitive electrode. The prepared high‐loading electrodes possess abundant stable redox‐active sites and porous conductive nanostructure, solving the problem of sluggish charge conduction, slow electrolyte diffusion, and inferior cycling stability.