Electrodeposited Polyaniline Nanofibers and MoO3 Nanobelts for High-Performance Asymmetric Supercapacitor with Redox Active Electrolyte

Abstract

Transition molybdenum oxides (MoO3) and conductive polymer (polyaniline, PANI) nanomaterials were fabricated and asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was assembled with MoO3 nanobelts as negative electrode and PANI nanofibers as a positive electrode. Branched PANI nanofibers with a diameter of 100 nm were electrodeposited on Ti mesh substrate and MoO3 nanobelts with width of 30–700 nm were obtained by the hydrothermal reaction method in an autoclave. Redox active electrolyte containing 0.1 M Fe2+/3+ redox couple was adopted in order to enhance the electrochemical performance of the electrode nano-materials. As a result, the PANI electrode shows a great capacitance of 3330 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 in 0.1 M Fe2+/3+/0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte. The as-assembled ASC achieved a great energy density of 54 Wh kg−1 at power density of 900 W kg−1. In addition, it displayed significant cycle stability and its capacitance even increased to 109% of the original value after 1000 charge–discharge cycles. The superior performance of the capacitors indicates their promising application as energy storage devices.