Hong Renzhou, Zhao Xijun, Lu Rongyu, You Meng, Chen Xiaofang, Yang Xiaoming
State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Engineering Laboratory of Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Molecules. 2024 May 15;29(10):2331. doi: 10.3390/molecules29102331.
Conducting polymers like polypyrrole, polyaniline, and polythiophene with nanostructures offers several advantages, such as high conductivity, a conjugated structure, and a large surface area, making them highly desirable for energy storage applications. However, the direct synthesis of conducting polymers with nanostructures poses a challenge. In this study, we employed a hard template method to fabricate polystyrene@polypyrrole (PS@PPy) core-shell nanoparticles. It is important to note that PS itself is a nonconductive material that hinders electron and ion transport, compromising the desired electrochemical properties. To overcome this limitation, the PS cores were removed using organic solvents to create hollow PPy nanospheres. We investigated six different organic solvents (cyclohexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, acetone, and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)) for etching the PS cores. The resulting hollow PPy nanospheres showed various nanostructures, including intact, hollow, buckling, and collapsed structures, depending on the thickness of the PPy shell and the organic solvent used. PPy nanospheres synthesized with DMF demonstrated superior electrochemical properties compared to those prepared with other solvents, attributed to their highly effective PS removal efficiency, increased specific surface area, and improved charge transport efficiency. The specific capacitances of PPy nanospheres treated with DMF were as high as 350 F/g at 1 A/g. And the corresponding symmetric supercapacitor demonstrated a maximum energy density of 40 Wh/kg at a power density of 490 W/kg. These findings provide new insights into the synthesis method and energy storage mechanisms of PPy nanoparticles.
具有纳米结构的导电聚合物,如聚吡咯、聚苯胺和聚噻吩,具有若干优势,例如高导电性、共轭结构和大表面积,这使得它们在储能应用中极具吸引力。然而,直接合成具有纳米结构的导电聚合物面临挑战。在本研究中,我们采用硬模板法制备了聚苯乙烯@聚吡咯(PS@PPy)核壳纳米粒子。需要注意的是,PS本身是一种非导电材料,会阻碍电子和离子传输,从而损害所需的电化学性能。为克服这一限制,使用有机溶剂去除PS核以制备中空的PPy纳米球。我们研究了六种不同的有机溶剂(环己烷、甲苯、四氢呋喃、氯仿、丙酮和N,N - 二甲基甲酰胺(DMF))用于蚀刻PS核。所得的中空PPy纳米球呈现出各种纳米结构,包括完整、中空、屈曲和塌陷结构,这取决于PPy壳的厚度和所使用的有机溶剂。与用其他溶剂制备的PPy纳米球相比,用DMF合成的PPy纳米球表现出优异的电化学性能,这归因于其高效的PS去除效率、增加的比表面积和改善的电荷传输效率。用DMF处理的PPy纳米球在1 A/g时的比电容高达350 F/g。相应的对称超级电容器在功率密度为490 W/kg时表现出最大能量密度为40 Wh/kg。这些发现为PPy纳米粒子的合成方法和储能机制提供了新的见解。