A high-performance supercapacitor based on polyaniline-nanoporous gold

Abstract

We prepared and investigated the performance of a supercapacitor prepared by coating polyaniline(PANI) layer on nanoporous gold(NPG) support. NPG was prepared by dealloying Au-Mg alloys with diluted acetic acid that was a simple and environmentally benign process. PANI was electro-deposited on NPG by chrono-potentiometry in perchloric acid. By optimizing the electro-polymerization process, we could prepare uniform and compact PANI layers with 5-10 nm thickness in and out of the whole NPG surface. We also improved the stability of PANI by using smaller dopant anions for electro-polymerization. Our PANI/NPG supercapacitors had a large areal capacitance of 6.54 mF/cm2, maximum energy density of 9.11 mWh/cm2 at power density of 1.56 W/cm2, fast charge/discharge rates up to 100 mV/s, and better stability than PANI/NPG supercapacitors prepared by sulfuric acid.