Heterolayered 2D Nanohybrids of Graphene-WS2 Nanosheets: Enabling Enhanced Supercapacitive Performance of Polyaniline

Integrating polyaniline (PANI) with two-dimen-sional (2D) nanostructures is a promising strategy to improve electrochemical performance. In this work, 2D laminar van der Waals heterostructures of graphene and WS2 nanosheets were prepared for the enhancement of the supercapacitive performance of PANI. With well-dispersed graphene/WS2 nanosheet hybrids (G-LS/WS2-LS) as deposition supports, the in situ polymerization of aniline delivered a ternary nanocomposite PANI/G-LS/WS2-LS. Benefiting from the good electrical conductivity and chemical stability of graphene, as well as the high redox activity of WS2, the ternary nanocomposite (PANI/G-LS/WS2-LS) exhibited significantly enhanced electrochemical performance as compared with PANI. Typically, a high specific capacitance of 421.5 F/g was delivered at a current density of 1 A/g in a three-electrode system, which is more than 1.5 times that of PANI (274.1 F/g at 1 A/g). Additionally, the symmetric supercapacitor based on PANI/G-LS/WS2-LS showed good electrochemical stability with a 71.6% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles at 5 A/g and a high specific energy of 9.96 W h/kg at a specific power of 250.04 W/kg. The study provides a facile approach to boost the electrochemical performance of conductive polymers for efficient and reliable energy storage.