Facile synthesis of layered reduced graphene oxide/polyaniline (rGO/PANI) composite electrode for flexible asymmetric solid-state supercapacitor

For supercapacitors, composite electrodes with a combination of reduced graphene oxide and polyaniline (rGO/PANI) have gained a lot of attention due to their synergistic effects. In this study, rGO-PANI composite thin films were deposited on a stainless steel substrate with various mass loadings by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The specific surface area rises from 13 m² g⁻¹ to 30 m² g⁻¹ with the introduction of rGO. Due to the composition modification and specific surface area enhancement, the specific capacitance (capacity) of 1348 F g⁻¹ (1255C g⁻¹) was obtained at 0.89 mg cm⁻² mass deposition. Additionally, rGO/PANI/PVA-H₂SO₄/AC flexible asymmetric solid-state supercapacitor (ASSS) showed specific energy of 20 Wh kg⁻¹ at specific power of 1198 W kg⁻¹. The device maintained almost 96 % of C_s at bending angle of 160° and 75 % over 5000 cycles. This work illustrates a simple way to improve the capacity and stability of PANI via rGO composition for supercapacitor applications.