Fabrication and electrochemical properties of graphene/copper–nickel solid solution reinforced polyaniline composite

A new redox graphene/copper–nickel solid solution/polyaniline (RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI) composite as a supercapacitor electrode is designed and successfully prepared by a flexible two-step method: first nano copper–nickel is supported on the surface of the oxide graphene, forming the RGO/Cu–Ni composite, followed by PANI is coated on RGO/Cu–Ni via in-situ polymerization process. The structure of the ternary composite is characterized by X-ray power diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared and scanning electron microscope. The RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI composite material shows better electrochemical performances than the pure PANI. The results show that the RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI composite have a great specific capacitance 674.7 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 current density and good cyclic stability of 90.1% over 1000 charge–discharge cycles, which can be attributed to the synergistic effect between RGO, Cu–Ni and PANI. Thus, the RGO/Cu–Ni/PANI composite is excellent electrode material in supercapacitor with high specific capacitance and the long-term cycle stability, and that is helpful in developing new kinds of portable energy storage devices.