Synthesis of Polythiophene and its Carbonaceous Nanofibers as Electrode Materials for Asymmetric Supercapacitors

A highly porous polythiophene (PTh) nanofibers were synthesized by surfactant assisted dilute polymerization method using FeCl 3 as oxidant. They were confirmed by XRD and FTIR analysis. The surface morphology of PTh was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The prepared polythiophene nanofibers were subjected to calcination under inert gas atmosphere at 1400oC for 2 hrs to get carbonaceous PTh nanofibers. The asymmetric supercapacitor was assembled using PTh nanofibers as the cathode and carbonaceous PTh nanofibers as the anode in 6M KOH electrolyte. The electrochemical supercapacitor performances were carried out to find out the specific capacitance, energy density and power density of the cell. The above results confirmed that the prepared PTh nanofibers and carbonaceous PTh nanofibers could be used as electrode materials for asymmetric supercapacitor applications.