Impact of Sulfuric Acid Concentration Variation in the Synthesis of Polyaniline and on Electrochemical Performance of Polyaniline Thin Films Prepared at Room Temperature
Abstract
In the present work, the morphologically modified nanofibrous Polyaniline (PANI) was prepared by controlling the rate of polymerization at different molar concentrations of sulfuric acid using the simple chemical bath deposition (CBD) process carried out at room temperature. Also, its effect on the physical and electrochemical performance of PANI electrodes is studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms the amorphous nature of PANI nanofibers. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectroscopy confirms the formation of PANI. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) study depicts that during synthesis morphological analysis confirms the modification of the nanofibers with respect to changing the concentration of the sulphuric acid The wettability study shows the hydrophilic nature of the PANI electrodes. The electrochemical study was carried out using cyclic voltammetric (CV), chronopotentiometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in 1 M KOH electrolyte. It is observed that the specific capacitance varies with increases in molar concentration of sulfuric acid. The observed highest specific capacitance value is 402 Fg-1 at 5 mV/s scan rate. The galvanostatic charge-discharge study gives specific energy 8.10 Whkg−1, specific power is 20 kWkg−1 and the efficiency is 89.79 %. Sulfuric acid's effect on PANI nanofibers has been shown to compensate for the drawbacks of electrochemical energy storage devices by increasing their specific capacitance value.