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Interconnected polyaniline clusters constructed from nanowires: Confined polymerization and electrochemical properties

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Abstract

By using microemulsion-mediated solvothermal method in the presence of camphorsulfonic acid as a dopant, self-aggregated polyaniline (PANI) nanowires were synthesized and further organized into three-dimensional cluster-connected networks. So-formed PANI exhibited a hierarchically porous structure, which was significantly different from those obtained by conventional chemical oxidation method, hydrothermal method, and other reported methods. Compared with nanofibers presented in this study, the nanowires in the clusters had a great decrease in diameter from ∼60 to ∼15 nm due to the space-confined polymerization. In addition, the size of the clusters could be easily adjusted by altering the dopant/monomer molar ratio. A probable assembly mechanism for such an interesting morphology was proposed. Used as an electrode material, PANI clusters showed high specific capacitances (510 and 368 F g−1 at 0.5 and 2 A g−1, respectively) and improved cycling stability (66% capacitance retention over 1000 cycles) as compared to PANI fibers and particles obtained by other methods, which may be related to its unique morphology and high doping level.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Financial support from the Scientific Research Program of the Higher Education Institution of XinJiang (No. XJEDU2012I05), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21363023 and No. U1203292) is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Petroleum and Gas Fine Chemicals, Educational Ministry of China, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, People’s Republic of China

    Qingxia Cui & Hongyu Mi

  2. Carbon Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, State Key Lab of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

    Jieshan Qiu, Chang Yu & Zongbin Zhao

Authors
  1. Qingxia Cui
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  2. Hongyu Mi
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  3. Jieshan Qiu
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  4. Chang Yu
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  5. Zongbin Zhao
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Correspondence to Hongyu Mi or Zongbin Zhao.

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Cui, Q., Mi, H., Qiu, J. et al. Interconnected polyaniline clusters constructed from nanowires: Confined polymerization and electrochemical properties. Journal of Materials Research 29, 2408–2415 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.263

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.263

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