A Novel Polyaniline Nanowire Arrays/Three-Dimensional Graphene Composite for Supercapacitor

It is an effective way to obtain high performance supercapacitors by increasing the surface area and conductivity of electrode materials. In this paper, three-dimensional (3D) graphene with a small pore size, good electrical conductivity and high mechanical strength is fabricated by chemical vapor deposition using nickel nanoparticles as the template. Then, a polyaniline nanowire arrays (PANI NWAs)/3D graphene composite is fabricated by in-situ polymerization. Due to the high conductivity and unique nano-structure, the as-prepared PANI NWAs/3D graphene composite exhibits an excellent capacitance of 680 F g⁻¹ at current density of 1 A g⁻¹. Moreover, a symmetric supercapacitor based on the PANI NWAs/3D graphene composite is assembled, and it shows an energy density of 6.43 Wh kg⁻¹ at a power density of 0.4 kW kg⁻¹. The assembled supercapacitor also exhibits a good cycling stability, which retains 78 % of its initial specific capacitance after 1000 cycles.