Progress in Conducting Polymer-Based Electrospun fibers for Supercapacitor Applications: A Review

The ever-growing need for energy storage has been at the forefront of research for the past few decades. A supercapacitor is an attractive candidate for storage needs with widespread applications in electronic gadgets, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, especially in space and the military. The significant role of electrodes in the performance of supercapacitors has led to the development of materials endowed with exceptional electrochemical performance and mechanical stability. Conducting polymers with intriguing properties like tuneable electronic conductivity, broad voltage window, tuneable redox activity etc., are excellent candidates as electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors with superior performance parameters. Electrospun conducting polymer nanofibers exhibit unique characteristics and favourable morphologies that have the potential to enhance the performance of supercapacitors. The review covers the fundamentals of electrochemical capacitors and introduces electrospinning as a versatile method to fabricate nanofibers using conducting polymers and their composites. The application of these nanofibers as electrodes in supercapacitors is discussed in detail and the performance parameters are compared. The article also discusses the challenges and prospects in using these electrospun nanofibers as effective supercapacitor electrodes.