Fabrication of ternary supercapacitor electrode using nickel cobaltite nanosheets to polyaniline/graphene oxide

In this paper, a novel binder-free supercapacitor electrode is introduced based on a ternary polyaniline (PANI), graphene oxide (GO), and nickel cobaltite (MO) composite. To aim this, MO was synthesized via hydrothermal method in the presence of GO, followed by in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline to form GO-PANI-MO (GPMO) composite. FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of different components, while SEM illustrated fuzzy structure of MO existed on PANI-GO surface. GPMO exhibited a specific capacitance of 250 F/g in the current density of 10 mu A/g, which was six-fold greater than the sole PANI electrode. This could be correlated to the high-specific surface area provided by fuzzy structure of MO. Moreover, this considerable electrochemical performance is the result of synergistic effect between the constructed materials owing both electric double-layer capacitive and pseudocapacitive properties. Also, this electrode had 97% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at the current density of 20 mu A/g.