Novel chemically synthesized polyaniline electrodes containing a fluoroboric acid dopant for supercapacitors

The performance of chemically synthesized dual‐acid‐doped polyaniline (PANI) electrode material was investigated for supercapacitors for the first time. Three different grades of PANI‐containing fluoroboric acid (HBF4) as one of the dopants were prepared by a chemical polymerization method. PANI–dodecylhydrogen sulfate–HBF4 salt was synthesized by an emulsion polymerization pathway. A PANI–HBF4–sodium tetrafluoroborate composite and PANI–HBF4 salt were prepared from different modifications of dopants by a dedoping–redoping process. Capacitative behaviors of the three grades of PANI electrode materials were investigated. Among the three different grades of PANI, PANI–HBF4 electrode showed the best performance in terms of conductivity (2.3 × 10−1 S/cm), specific capacitance of the supercapacitor (140 F/g), specific energy (9.6 W h/kg), and specific power (58.8 W/kg). An increase in the capacitance of PANI–HBF4 was achieved, which identified the significant contribution of the dedoping–redoping processes in the PANI system for supercapacitors.