Xueying Chang1,2,Maher El-Kady1,2,Helen Huang1,2,Cheng-Wei Lin1,2,Mackenzie Anderson1,2,Stephanie Aguilar1,Jason Zhu1,Richard Kaner1,2
University of California, Los Angeles1,California NanoSystems Institute2
Xueying Chang1,2,Maher El-Kady1,2,Helen Huang1,2,Cheng-Wei Lin1,2,Mackenzie Anderson1,2,Stephanie Aguilar1,Jason Zhu1,Richard Kaner1,2
University of California, Los Angeles1,California NanoSystems Institute2
To keep up with the ever-growing modern technological markets, such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles, it is essential to develop energy storage devices with high energy and power density as well as long cycle life. The conducting polymers have been extensively applied in energy storage owing to their favorable features, including superior electrochemical activity and intrinsic electrical conductivity, yet they suffer from low cycling stability due to the volumetric degradation through repeated charge–discharge processes. Herein, aniline tetramer, the basic building block of polyaniline, with short chain length is employed, and with the assistance of 3D carbon materials, the covalently linked hybrid electrode materials are formed. The as-prepared electrodes as well as the fabricated symmetric supercapacitors deliver remarkable long-term cycling stability. Furthermore, clear evidence from the cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge profiles and impedance spectroscopy confirms greatly enhanced electrochemical performance in this proposed design compared with noncovalently linked, long-chain polyaniline based hybrid materials.