Electrochemical fabrication and supercapacitor performances of metallo phthalocyanine/functionalized-multiwalled carbon nanotube/polyaniline modified hybrid electrode materials

Abstract In this work, we aimed to prepare three different metallo phthalocyanine/functionalized-multiwalled carbon nanotube/polyaniline/pencil graphite electrode (MPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE) modified electrodes with high specific capacitance, high energy and power densities, and long cycle life for supercapacitors. In this concept, ZnPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE, CuPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE, and NiPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE electrode materials were prepared by electrochemical method. The surface and structural properties of the prepared electrodes were investigated with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Atomic force microscope (AFM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and electrical conductivity analyses. The electrochemical properties of these electrode materials were examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) analyses. The effects of preparation parameters and composite composition of the electrodes on electrochemical performance were investigated. The NiPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE electrode has higher specific capacitance (325 F/g) than ZnPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE (278 F/g), CuPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE (282 F/g), f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE (162 F/g), and PANI/PGE (126 F/g) electrodes. In addition, all MPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE electrodes have long-cycle life and maintained approximately 100% of its capacitance after 1000 charge-discharge cycles. As a result, the prepared MPc/f-MWCNT/PANI/PGE electrodes significantly removed the disadvantages of the components, and the synergistic effects between the components considerably improved supercapacitor performance of the electrodes.