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Graphene–polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites with different morphologies were successfully fabricated by an effective one-step hydrothermal method. The morphologies of PANI could be controlled from nanowires to nanocones by adjusting the amount of aniline with the assistance of an ultrasonication process. By taking the advantages of the high conductivity of graphene and the pseudocapacitance of PANI, graphene–PANI composites were used as an example for the application to the supercapacitor electrode materials. The cyclic voltammograms (CV) and galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements demonstrate that the graphene–PANI shows excellent electrochemical properties. The graphene–PANI nanowire composite (724.6 F g−1) exhibited higher specific capacitance than that of the graphene–PANI nanocone composite (602.5 F g−1) at a current density of 1.0 A g−1. Furthermore, the graphene–PANI nanowire composite exhibited outstanding capacitive performance with a high specific capacitance of 957.1 F g−1 at 2 mV s−1 and a high cycle reversibility of 90% after charge–discharge 1000 cycles. The improved electrochemical properties of the graphene–PANI nanocomposites suggest their promising applications to high-performance supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ternary nanocomposite of graphene/polyaniline (PANI)/porous silica MCM-41 (MCM-41) was prepared by a hydrothermal method. The amount of graphene oxide (GO) in the graphene/PANI/MCM-41 nanocomposite had a strong effect on the supercapacitor performance. The experimental results showed that the specific capacitance of the graphene/PANI/MCM-41 nanocomposite could reach the highest value when the GO content was 50%. The specific capacitance of the nanocomposite was 405 F g−1 at a current density of 0.8 A g−1. Furthermore, over 91.4% of the original capacitance was retained after repeating the galvanostatic charge–discharge for 1000 cycles. The performance of the prepared supercapacitor containing different amounts of GO were studied in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]