Asymmetric Supercapacitive Characteristics of PANI Embedded Holey Graphene Nanoribbons

Abstract

In the present study, graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONR) and reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons (RGONR) supported polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites are synthesized via an <i>in situ</i> chemical polymerization method and investigated for supercapacitor electrodes. Electrochemical studies performed by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) measurements suggest that both nanocomposites possess enhanced specific capacitance (<i>C</i>_sp as 740 F/g for GONR/PANI and 1180 F/g for RGONR/PANI at 5 mV/s). GONR/PANI and RGONR/PANI nanocomposites show good rate capability with high <i>C</i>_sp upon increasing the current density from 2 to 20 A/g in GCD measurements, approximately 55% decay in <i>C</i>_sp value of the nanocomposites is observed compared to pristine PANI (∼70%). The undertaken study signifies enhanced electrical and electrochemical properties of GONR/RGONR supported PANI nanocomposites due to a synergistic effect of GONR/RGONR and PANI. Furthermore, asymmetric devices are fabricated using GONR/RGONR as the negative electrode, while GONR/PANI and RGONR/PANI are used as the positive electrode, which exhibit significant enhancement in energy density and device performance