Graphene-wrapped polyaniline nanowire arrays on nitrogen-doped carbon fabric as novel flexible hybrid electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitor.

We report the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheet wrapped polyaniline (PANI) nanowire arrays grown on nitrogen-doped carbon fiber cloth (eCFC). The RGO coating layer is important to accommodate volume change and mechanical deformation of the coated PANI nanowires arrays during the long-term charge/discharge processes. The resulting hierarchical symmetric supercapacitor based on RGO/PANI/eCFC composites shows an enhanced capacitive behavior with a maximum energy density of 25.4 Wh kg(-1), a maximum power density of 92.2 kW kg(-1) and a specific capacitance of 1145 F g(-1), which is higher than that of PANI/eCFC (1050 F g(-1)) and GO/PANI/eCFC (940 F g(-1)). Moreover, the assembled supercapacitor exhibits excellent charge/discharge rates and a good cycling stability, retaining over 94% of its initial capacitance after 5000 cycles.