Structural and physical properties of polyaniline/silver oxide/silver nanocomposite electrode for supercapacitor applications

Herein, Polyaniline (PANI) and polyaniline/silver oxide/silver (PANI/Ag 2 O-Ag) nanocomposite were synthesized using a photopolymerization method. The functional group, structural, surface morphology, and optical properties of the samples were revealed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray dif-fraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy techniques, respectively. XRD confirm the structure of the PANI with Ag 2 O-Ag. These nanoparticles appeared in porous shapes over PANI as indicated by SEM images that gave the composites the mushroom shapes. The composite is a promising electrode for the symmetric supercapacitor with high efficiency capacitance. This capacitance is calculated under different electro-lyte that is, NaOH, NaCl, Na 2 S 2 O 3 , and HCl, where the charge/discharge and cyclic voltammetry curve were studied under these electrolytes. The electro-chemical properties of the PANI/Ag 2 O-Ag nanocomposite as supercapacitor electrode materials were investigated using different electrolytes. The results confirm that the specific capacitance values are dependent on the types of the electrolytes, in which Na 2 S 2 O 3 and HCl have the optimum values of 160 and 145.2 F/g, respectively at 0.4 A.g À1. Moreover, the values of energy density were 122.2 and 20.08 W h kg À1 , respectively. The results also reveal that the capacitor has high stability with a very small loss in capacitance retention. This study proposes that PANI/Ag 2 O-Ag are a promising material as an electrode for high-performance supercapacitors that can be applicable in the industrial field soon.