Preparation of sandwich-structured ternary nanocomposites porous carbon-derived from waste tires/manganese dioxide/polyaniline as electrode for supercapacitor

Abstract

The development of multicomponent electrodes incorporating diverse capacitive materials has become a viable strategy for engineering high-performance supercapacitors. In this paper, a sandwich-structured ternary composite consisting of polyaniline (PANI), manganese dioxide (MnO₂), and porous carbon-derived from waste tires (PCDWT) has been synthesized via in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline. The composite features worm-like PANI tightly and uniformly coated on pompon-like PCDWT/MnO₂ surfaces, facilitated by MnO₂ serving as a reactive template during polymerization. The ternary nanocomposite PCDWT/MnO₂/PANI-3 g exhibited exceptional electrochemical performance, achieving a specific capacitance of 369.6F/g at 1.0 A/g in three-electrode configuration. Remarkably, it retained 95.5 % of its initial capacitance after 6,000 charge–discharge cycles at 10 A/g. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor fabricated with PCDWT/MnO₂/PANI-3 g and PCDWT electrodes exhibited a specific capacitance of 91.34F/g at 0.5 A/g. The device delivered a maximum energy density of 36.66 Wh kg⁻¹ at a power density of 424.99 W kg⁻¹ and maintained capacitance holdings of 87.72 % after 10,000 cycles at 10 A/g. This superior electrochemical performance can be attributed to the synergistic effects of the PCDWT/MnO₂ scaffold, which enhances charge transfer and electron transport, and the outer PANI layer, which improves the electrical conductivity of MnO₂, protects against dissolution, and increases electroactive sites.