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增强储能能力的应用。假电容性聚合物复合材料在过去已经被使用，但由于在充电周期中体积膨胀和收缩而导致机械失效。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传递动力学。聚苯胺（PANI）由于其低廉的成本、可合成的可扩展性、独特的化学性质和较高的理论电容而被选为本项目的导电聚合物。将聚苯胺与碳毡、石墨烯、碳纳米管和碳纤维等多种碳相结合，可以提高材料的电化学稳定性。本研究的目的是在这种复合结构的基础上，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.