Production of carbon nanotube-supported metal (M = Ru, Pd, Pt) doped polyacrylic acid electrode materials and supercapacitor application

A radical polymerization with the contribution of carbon nanotube (CNT) supported metal (M/CNT) catalysts has been reported on the preparation of poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc) hydrogels for supercapacitor electrode materials. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX) and mapping, micro -Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used to characterize the hydrogels. The obtained PAAc-g-(Ru/CNT) as a supercapacitor electrode shows a high specific capacitance of 1294.5 F g-1 at 5.0 mV s-1. This electrode has a high capacitance retention of up to 97.7 % after 1000 cycles, showing extended cycle life and strong electrochemical stability. Furthermore, the idea of such a synthesis technique can be extended to include the co-use of polymers and other materials with ionic conductivity properties with electrocatalysts for metal oxide supercapacitors and advanced energy storage devices.