Anchoring polyaniline nanofibers on liquefied wood carbon aerogel for high-performance hybrid supercapacitors

Polyaniline (PANI) electrode materials exhibit low capacitance and poor stability due to self-shrinkage and agglomeration in practical applications. In this work, PANI was grown in situ on the framework of the liquefied wood carbon aerogel (LWCA) skeleton by chemical oxidation polymerization to improve the self-agglutination problem of PANI, obtaining the composite electrode material (LWCA-PANI) for hybrid supercapacitors. As expected, Three-dimensional structure of LWCA could effectively hinder the aggregation of polyaniline nanofibers, significantly expanding the accessible area of ions and alleviating volume expansion by preventing stacking to improve capacitive performance. The optimized LWCA-PANI3 electrode material exhibited a remarkable specific capacitance of 507.55 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, and demonstrated excellent cycle stability with a retention rate of 75.37% after 4000 cycles. Furthermore, the supercapacitor assembled by LWCA-PANI3 demonstrated a largest energy density of 32.08 W h kg−1 at 400 W kg−1 power density and an admirable cycling durability of 76.12% retention for up to 4000 cycles. Consequently, LWCA-PANI3 composites showed a broad application prospect in electrode materials for hybrid supercapacitors.