A hydroquinone redox electrolyte for polyaniline/SnO2 supercapacitors

In order to achieve high specific capacitance of polyaniline/SnO2 (PANI/SnO2) supercapacitors, utilizing hydroquinone (HQ) as redox electrolyte for PANI/SnO2 supercapacitors was reported. In this redox electrolyte, the specific capacitance was heightened by 356 F g(-1), reaching 857 F g(-1) with a specific energy density of 116.6 Wh kg(-1) at an applied current of 0.5 A g(-1). Long-term cycling experiments performed showed good stability with retention of the initial capacitance values of 81.2% after 2000 galvanostatic cycles. The remarkable results presented here illustrate that the HQ redox electrolyte was a facile and straight forward approach to improve the performances of PANI/SnO2 supercapacitors. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.