An Mn Doped Polyaniline Electrode for Electrochemical Supercapacitor

Undoped and Mn doped Polyaniline (PANI) thin films were deposited on stainless steel substrates by sonochemical method. Films deposition was done using dip coating technique. To study the Mn doping effect on the specific capacitance of PANI, concentration of Mn was varied from 0.4 to 1.6 wt %. The Fourier Transform-IR (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy techniques have been used for the phase identification and determination of the Mn in the PANI films. Surface morphology was examined by using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) which showed nanofiber aggregate structure of undoped PANI and porous and well distributed nanofibers for the doped PANI. The supercapacitive behavior of the electrodes was tested in three electrode system with 1.0 M H2SO4 electrolyte by using cyclic voltammetry. The specific capacitance value increases from 285 to 474 F g(-1) as the Mn concentration was increased. This work demonstrates a simple strategy of improving specific capacitance of the polymer and hence may be adopted easily for other dopants also. Thus the work will open a new avenue for designing low cost high performance devices for better supercapcitors. (C) 2011 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3561428]