Enhanced Storage Performance of PANI and PANI/Graphene Composites Synthesized in Protic Ionic Liquids

Polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized using oxidative polymerization in a mixture of water with pyrrolidinium hydrogen sulfate [Pyrr][HSO₄], which is a protic ionic liquid PIL. The obtained PANI (PANI/PIL) was compared with conventional PANI (PANI/HCl and PANI/HSO₄) in terms of their morphological, structural, and storage properties. The results demonstrate that the addition of this PIL to a polymerization medium leads to a fiber-like morphology, instead of a spherical-like morphology, of PANI/HSO₄ or an agglomerated morphology of PANI/HCl. In addition, PAN/PIL exhibits an improvement of the charge transfer kinetic and storage capability in H₂SO₄ 1 mol·L⁻¹, compared to PANI/HCl. The combination of PANI/PIL and graphene oxide (GO), on the other hand, was investigated by optimizing the PANI/GO weight ratio to achieve the nanocomposite material with the best performance. Our results indicate that the PANI/PIL/GO containing 16 wt% of GO material exhibits a high performance and stability (223 F·g⁻¹ at 10 A·g⁻¹ in H₂SO₄ 1 mol·L⁻¹, 4.9 Wh·Kg⁻¹, and 3700 W·Kg⁻¹ @ 10 A·g⁻¹). The obtained results highlight the beneficial role of PIL in building PANI and PANI/GO nanocomposites with excellent performances for supercapacitor applications.