Fabrication of Highly Flexible, Scalable, and High‐Performance Supercapacitors Using Polyaniline/Reduced Graphene Oxide Film with Enhanced Electrical Conductivity and Crystallinity

Abstract

With developments in technology, tremendous effort has been devoted to produce flexible, scalable, and high‐performance supercapacitor electrode materials. This report presents a novel fabrication method of highly flexible and scalable electrode material for high‐performance supercapacitors using solution‐processed polyaniline (PANI)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) hybrid film. SEM, TEM, Raman, and XPS analyses show that the PANI/RGO film is successfully synthesized. The percentages of the PANI component in the film are controlled (88, 76, and 60%), and the maximum electrical conductivity (906 S cm−1) is observed at the PANI percentage of 76%. Notably, electrical conductivity of the PANI/RGO film (906 S cm−1) is larger than both PANI (580 S cm−1) and RGO (46.5 S cm−1) components. XRD analysis demonstrates that the strong π–π interaction between the RGO and the PANI cause more compact packing of the PANI chains by inducing more fully expanded conformation of the PANI chains in the solution, leading to increase in the electrical conductivity and crystallinity of the film. The PANI/RGO film also displays diverse advantages as a scalable and flexible electrode material (e.g., controllable size and great flexibility). During the electrochemical tests, the film exhibits high capacitance of 431 F g−1 with enhanced cycling stability.