Ultra High Electrical Performance of Nano Nickel Oxide and Polyaniline Composite Materials

The cooperative effects between the PANI (polyaniline)/nano-NiO (nano nickel oxide) composite electrode material and redox electrolytes (potassium iodide, KI) for supercapacitor applications was firstly discussed in this article, providing a novel method to prepare nano-NiO by using β-cyelodextrin (β-CD) as the template agent. The experimental results revealed that the composite electrode processed a high specific capacitance (2122.75 F·g^-1 at 0.1 A·g^-1 in 0.05 M KI electrolyte solution), superior energy density (64.05 Wh·kg^-1 at 0.2 A·g^-1 in the two-electrode system) and excellent cycle performance (86% capacitance retention after 1000 cycles at 1.5 A·g^-1). All those ultra-high electrical performances owe to the KI active material in the electrolyte and the PANI coated nano-NiO structure.