A novel hierarchically carbon foam templated carbon nanotubes/polyaniline electrode for efficient electrochemical supercapacitor

In this work, a high-performance electrode material has been fabricated by the incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polyaniline (PANI) on a carbon foams (CF) to improve its electrochemical performance. The microstructure and performance of as-prepared material was characterized in detail. Results showed that the resultant material exhibited a high gravimetric capacitance up to 467.1 F g ⁻¹ , higher energy density of 104. 2 Wh kg ⁻¹ and power density of 3000 W kg ⁻¹ at a current density 3 A g ⁻¹ when the electrochemical doping time of PANI equals to 20 min. Furthermore, it appeared a good cycling stability with capacitance retention of 94.5% after 10000 cycles. The enhanced electrochemical performance can be attributed to the unique carbon nanostructure and synergistic effects of active materials CNTs and PANI. It indicates that this novel CF/CNTs/PANI-20 composite is a promising candidate for electrochemical capacitors.