Effect of Nafion on the preparation and capacitance performance of polyaniline

With manganese dioxide (MnO 2 ) as the oxidant, perfluorinated sulfonic acid ion exchange resin (Nafion) as the doping agent and emulsifier, Nafion doped polyaniline (PANI-Nafion) was prepared by emulsion polymerization method. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were carried out to characterize the structure and morphology of PANI-Nafion. Symmetric redox supercapacitor was assembled with PANI-Nafion as active electrode material and 1.0 mol L −1 H 2 SO 4 aqueous solution as electrolyte. The electrochemical characteristics of these supercapacitors were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and galvanostatic charge/discharge tests. These results show that the diameter of PANI-Nafion nanofiber is about 30 ∼ 40 nm and the pores between PANI-Nafion composite materials are distributed uniformly. The specific capacitance of PANI-Nafion electrode is about 385.3 F g −1 , which is higher than that of undoped PANI (235.8 F g −1 ). After 1000 charge/discharge cycles the specific capacitance of PANI-Nafion electrode is 272.4 F g −1 , its capacity retention is 70.7%, which is significantly better than that of PANI electrode materials.