Electrochemical Behavior and Specific Capacitance of Polyaniline/Silver Nanoparticle/Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube Composites

In this work, we fabricated the polyaniline/silver nanoparticle/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PANI/Ag/MWCNT) composites by in situ polymerization of aniline on the wall of Ag/MWCNTs with different aniline to Ag/MWCNT mass ratios. The chemical structure of the ternary composites was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Xray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscope and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to observe the morphology of the ternary composites. The results showed that the polyaniline PANI layer was prepared successfully and it covered Ag/MWCNTs completely. In addition, Ag nanoparticles between the MWCNT core and the PANI layer existed in the form of elemental crystal, which couldcontribute to the electrochemical performance of the composites. Then we prepared the composite electrodes and studied their electrochemical behaviors in 1 mol/L KOH. It was found that these composite electrodes had very low impedance, and exhibited lower resistance, higher electrochemical activity, and better cyclic stability compared with pure PANI electrode. Particularly, when the mass ratio of aniline to Ag/MWCNTs was 5:5, the composite electrode displayed a small equivalent series resistance (0.23 Ω) and low interfacial charge transfer resistance (<0.25 Ω), as well as 160 F/g of the maximum specific capacitance at acurrent density of 0.25 A/g in KOH solution. We could conclude that the composite material had potential applications as cathode materials for lithium batteries and supercapacitors.