Conducting polymer based nanocomposites for supercapacitor applications: A review of recent advances, challenges and future prospects

Abstract

Conducting polymers (CPs) have gained a lot of interest because of their distinctive properties like conductivity, stability, and corrosion resistance and their application in different fields including energy storage, sensors, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, Photovoltaic devices, Polymeric light emitting diodes (PLEDs), etc. CPs reinforced by different nanofiller materials via varied synthesis methods are called CP nanocomposites (CPNs). Changes in morphology and crystallization have resulted from the inclusion of nanoparticles in CPs. It was discovered that morphology variations significantly impact the inherent properties of nanocomposite materials. The morphology of the nanocomposite was also shown to be affected by the type of nanofiller. Metals, metal oxides, carbon-based compounds, and other substances can be used as nanofiller materials. These filler materials features foresee an improvement in the conductivity of these CPs. This review gives an outline of the recent developments and works on CPNs by studying and analyzing the synthesis methods, properties, and electrode materials for Supercapacitor (SC) applications. A comprehensive study on the fundamentals of SC including the mechanism of different types of SC and the state of the art of research has been studied thoroughly for CPs like Polyaniline (PANI), Polypyrrole (PPy) and Poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) based composites for SC application.