Recycled Carbon Fiber-Supported Polyaniline/Manganese Dioxide Prepared via One-Step Electrodeposition for Flexible Supercapacitor Integrated Electrodes

• Main Authors: Xiaoning Wang, Hongli Wei, Wei Du, Xueqin Sun, Litao Kang, Yuping Zhang, Xiangjin Zhao, Fuyi Jiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-10-01
• Series: Polymers
• Subjects: recycled carbon fiber; polyaniline; manganese dioxide; flexible electrode; supercapacitor
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/10/10/1152

The exploration of multifunctional electrode materials has been a hotspot for the development of high-performance supercapacitors. We have used carbon fiber plates recovered from construction waste to prepare high-quality flexible carbon fiber materials by pyrolysis of epoxy resin. The as-prepared recycled carbon fiber has a diameter of 8 μm and is the perfect substrate material for flexible electrode materials. Furthermore, polyaniline and manganese dioxide are uniformly deposited on the recycled carbon fiber by one-step electrodeposition to form an active film. The recycled carbon fiber/polyaniline/MnO2 composite shows an excellent specific capacitance of 475.1 F·g−1 and capacitance retention of 86.1% after 5000 GCD cycles at 1 A·g−1 in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte. The composites optimized for electrodeposition time have more electroactive sites, faster ions and electron transfer, structural stability and higher conductivity, endowing the composites promising application prospect.