Morphology-dependent electrochemical performance of nitrogen-doped carbon dots@polyaniline hybrids for supercapacitors

Summary In this work, the binary N-CDs@PANI hybrids were fabricated by introducing zero-dimensional nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) into reticulated PANI. Firstly, N-CDs were prepared by one-pot microwave method, and then, the N-CDs were introduced into in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline (ANI) monomer. The N-CDs with abundant functional groups and high electronic cloud density played a significant role in guiding the polyaniline-ordered growth into intriguing morphologies. Moreover, morphology-dependent electrochemical performances of N-CDs@PANI hybrids were investigated and N-CDs improve static interaction and enhance the special capacitances in the N-CDs@PANI hybrids. Especially, the specific capacitance of PC4 hybrid can reach 785 F g −1 , which exceed that of pure PANI (274 F g −1 ) at current density of 0.5 A g −1 according to three-electrode measurement. And the capacitance retention of the PC4 hybrid still keeps 70% after 2000 cycles of charge and discharge. The N-CDs@PANI hybrids can have potential applications in electrode materials, supercapacitors, nonlinear optics, and microwave absorption.