Aniline-Co-Pyrrole (Anpy)/Mxene Composites with High Specific Capacitance for Flexible Supercapacitors

Abstract

Two-dimensional material MXene (Ti3C2Tx) with multilayer structures is widely used in supercapacitors, but their structures tend to pile up and limit their performance. Therefore, a strategy is provided to synthesize the random copolymer aniline-co-pyrrole (ANPY) by in-situ polymerization of aniline and pyrrole on the MXene. The self-stacking of MXene materials can be prevented,  and ANPY can be used as the intermediate layer to modulate MXene nanosheets forming more ion migration channels, which can improve the electrochemical performance of ANPY/MXene. MXene is used as a "backbone" for ANPY to adjust the chain space configuration of polymer molecules. The prepared ANPY/MXene electrodes have a high specific capacitance of 451.75 F/g increasing by 39% on the original PANI electrode. PVA/MXene gel electrolyte and ANPY/MXene electrode are assembled to form a flexible supercapacitor capable of 91.8% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles. It suggests that the ANPY/MXene material provides a new idea for preparing supercapacitors with good electrochemical performance.

Keywords: Polyaniline, Polypyrrole, MXene, Supercapacitors.