Carbon nanotube/dendrimer hybrids as electrodes for supercapacitors

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were surface-modified by a glycodendrimer with four glucose units (4-Gl). Electrodes for supercapacitors based on CNT/4-Gl hybrids were used for the first time in this work. The preparation was conducted by casting eight alternating bilayers of two types of modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), MWCNT-COOH/4-Gl and MWCNT-NH2/4-Gl, from aqueous dispersions (pH = 6). The electrodes showed good cohesion, dimensional stability, and a homogeneous nanoscale structure because the carbon nanotube/dendrimer layers interact electrostatically. The supercapacitor was stacked with a separator embedded with a 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ionic liquid electrolyte. The device with 20 wt% of dendrimer with respect to CNT content in the electrodes achieved a remarkable increase of 600 % in capacitance compared with the capacitance without the dendrimer.