Journal of Material Sciences & Engineering

KOH Activated Hollow Hierarchical Porous PolyanilineBased Nanospheres as Efficient Electrode Material for High Performance Supercapacitors

Abstract

Shehnaz Shehnaz*

Hollow nanostructured materials have gained attraction due to their advantages in stability, enlarged surface area and enhanced electrochemical performance toward supercapacitors. In this study, we describe the synthesis of hollow polyaniline spheres (HPS) by one pot polymerization process using FeCl3 as a catalyst and H2O2 as oxidizing agents under hydrothermal conditions. The HPS are further activated by using potassium hydroxide (KOH) and heat treatment under N2. The obtained results have demonstrated that activated HPS samples possess unique well- balanced hierarchical porous structure with mesopores and micropores combination. Besides, activated HPS own easy-accessibly large surface area and high conductivity, which can result in ultrafast electrolyte ion transport and endow carbon materials outstanding capacitive performance. Furthermore, the KOH activated HPS exhibits a larger specific surface area of 311 m2 g–1, specific capacitance of 945 F g–1 at scan rate 2 mV s–1, high energy density 126 Wh kgâ??1 at 1 A gâ??1 current density and capacitance retention (96%) after completing 1000 cycles in 1.0 M KOH aqueous solution, indicating that HPS are a promising electrode material for high performance supercapacitor application