Electrodeposited polyaniline/nickel Schiff-base complex composite on glassy carbon electrode for high-performance supercapacitor

Supercapacitors have become highly effective energy storage devices, functioning through electrochemical processes. The choice of electrode materials can significantly impact the efficacy of these devices. Composites of conducting polymers (CPs) with metal complexes have drawn significant attention as electroactive materials for supercapacitor due to their remarkable durability, conductivity, and ease of manufacturing. Nevertheless, there is currently no documentation available for the composite of polyaniline (PANI) with nickel-ligand complex (NiL) composite prepared using co-electrodeposition on a bare glassy carbon (BGC) electrode as a supercapacitor electrode material. In this work, NiL was first synthesized, then electrochemically deposited on a BGC electrode along with PANI. Various spectroscopy techniques, including UV, FTIR, NMR, and mass spectrometry, were employed to study the synthesized ligand and metal-ligand complex. FESEM was used to characterize the structures and morphologies of the co-electrodeposited materials. The electrochemical properties and performance were assessed using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charging-discharging (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). PANI/NiL (381 F g −1 ) composite has a larger specific capacitance than PANI (286 F g −1 ) as obtained from the GCD curve at a constant current density of 1 A g −1 . The results show that a PANI/NiL composite that has been co-electrochemically deposited on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode has promise as an electrode material for supercapacitors.