Polyaniline and nano-carbon composite supercapacitors

本项目旨在探索纳米复合材料在超级电容器中的应用。伪电容聚合物复合材料在过去曾被使用过，但由于电荷循环过程中的体积膨胀和收缩，它们遭受了机械故障。我们提出了一种聚合物/纳米碳复合材料，它将允许纳米碳支架提供增强的机械完整性和电子转移动力学。聚苯胺(PANI)具有成本低、合成规模大、化学结构独特、理论电容高等优点，是本课题的首选导电聚合物。将PANI与各种碳(如碳毡、石墨烯、碳纳米管和碳纤维)结合在一起可以提高材料的电化学稳定性。本研究旨在通过化学和电化学制造技术，构建基于碳/导电聚合物复合材料的新型电极材料设计。

This project aims to explore the enhanced energy storage capability of nano composite materials in supercapacitor applications. Pseudocapacitive polymer composites have been used in the past but they suffer from mechanical failure due to volume expansion and shrinkage during charge cycles. We propose a polymer/nano-carbon composite that will allow the nano-carbon scaffold to provide enhanced mechanical integrity and electron transfer kinetics. Polyaniline (PANI), due to its low cost, scalability of synthesis, unique chemistry, and high theoretical capacitance is the chosen conducting polymer for this project. Combining PANI with various carbons, such as carbon felt, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and carbon fibres has been shown to increase the materials electrochemical stability. This research aims build on this composite architecture to construct novel electrode material designs based on carbon/conducting polymer composites, via chemical and electrochemical fabrication techniques.