Bridge effect of silver nanoparticles on electrochemical performance of graphite nanofiber/polyaniline for supercapacitor

In this work, silver (Ag) nanoparticles were deposited onto graphite nanofibers (GNFs) by chemical reduction while polyaniline-coated Ag-GNFs (Ag-GNFs/PANI) were prepared by in situ polymerization. The effect of the Ag nanoparticles intercalated in composite interface on the electrochemical performances, such as CV curve, charge–discharge behaviors, and specific capacitance of the GNFs/PANI was investigated. It was found that nano-sized Ag particles could be uniformly deposited onto the GNFs and that Ag-GNFs were successfully coated by PANI via in situ polymerization. According to the charge–discharge curves, the highest specific capacitance (212 F/g) of the Ag-GNFs/PANI was obtained at a scan rate of 0.1 A/g, as compared to 153 F/g for GNFs/PANI and 80 F/g for PANI. This indicated that the Ag nanoparticles that were deposited onto the GNFs led to a bridge effect between GNFs and PANI to improve the charge transfer, which resulted in the enhanced electrochemical performances of the composites due to a synergistic effect.