High-Conductivity and High-Capacitance Electrospun Fibers for Supercapacitor Applications

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Electrochemistry

Background:

• Electrospinning is a versatile technique for producing nanoscale fibers from various materials.
• Intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs), like polyaniline (PANI), can be enhanced by secondary doping.
• Previous attempts to electrospin secondary-doped ICPs were hindered by the low volatility of common dopants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply the concept of secondary doping to electrospun fibers for the first time.
• To develop an efficient and reliable method for producing secondary-doped ICP fibers.
• To investigate the conductivity and supercapacitor performance of these novel fibers.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a novel rotating drum electrospinning setup.
• Employed a mixture of low- and high-volatility solvents for fiber fabrication.
• Prepared polyaniline-poly(ethylene oxide) (PANI-PEO) fibers.

Main Results:

• Achieved efficient and reliable production of secondary-doped ICP fibers.
• The conductivity of the electrospun PANI-PEO fibers reached 1.73 S/cm, significantly higher than previously reported values.
• Tested as supercapacitor electrodes, the fibers exhibited a specific capacitance of 3121 F/g at 0.1 A/g, a record for PANI-PEO electrospun fibers.

Conclusions:

• Successfully demonstrated the first application of secondary doping in electrospun ICP fibers.
• The novel electrospinning method enables the production of highly conductive polymer fibers.
• These conductive fibers show exceptional potential for high-performance supercapacitor applications.