Polypyrrole decorated cellulose for energy storage applications

Polypyrrole-based electrodes were fabricated for energy storage applications using cellulose as a substrate material. Films of polypyrrole (pPy) were first coated on the cellulose via chemical polymerization using FeCl3 as an oxidant. To further enhance the charge storage capacity, the resulting polypyrrole–cellulose composites (pPy/Cel) were coated with polypyrrole doped with anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonic acid (pPy[AQS]) via electropolymerization. The charge storage capacity was dependent on the amount of electropolymerized polypyrole, which could be controlled by the electropolymerization time. The cyclic voltammograms revealed that the charge storage capacities per geometric area (C/cm2) significantly increased and the gravimetric charge capacity increased from 125 C/g to 250 C/g after the electropolymerization. These increases were attributed to the redox activities of pPy and the dopant.