Homogeneously deposited polyaniline on etched porous carbon cloth towards advanced supercapacitor electrode

Supercapacitor with high energy density is highly desired for wearable and flexible smart electronics. For the development of polyaniline-based supercapacitors, it is crucial to improve the long-term stability and specific capacitance. Herein, carbon cloth is etched by metal (oxy)hydroxides to obtain the etched porous carbon cloth (EPCC) for the subsequent controllable grafting of pseudocapacitive polyaniline (PANI). The high specific area, porous structure, and abundant oxygenic groups of EPCC promote the homogeneous deposition of PANI, thus allowing significantly improve specific capacitance, rate capability and electrochemical reversibility. As a result, the EPCC/PANI electrode exhibits excellent areal specific capacitance of 557.5 mF cm⁻² in 1 M H₂SO₄ solution at a current density of 1 mA cm⁻² and 242.6 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹, with highest energy density of 14.493 Wh kg⁻¹ and highest power density of 1530 W kg⁻¹, respectively. The EPCC/PANI electrode also manifests excellent structural stability, achieving 72.73% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles. This work provides a feasible strategy for the design and construction of flexible energy storage device, which paves the way for the development of wearable electronics in the era of Internet of Things.