Ternary nitrogen-doped graphene/nickel ferrite/polyaniline nanocomposites for high-performance supercapacitors

Abstract The electrochemical property of graphene can be significantly enhanced due to the incorporating of heteroatoms into graphene. In this article, the ternary nitrogen-doped graphene/nickel ferrite/polyaniline (NGNP) nanocomposite is synthesized by a facile two-step approach and its electrochemical properties as electrodes for supercapacitors are studied by various electrochemical measurements. The specific capacitance of NGNP is 645.0 F g −1 at 1 mV s −1 and 667.0 F g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 in a three- and two-electrode system, respectively, much higher than other binary electrodes. In a two-electrode symmetric system, the energy density of the NGNP electrode is 92.7 W h kg −1 at a power density of 110.8 W kg −1 , moreover, that of the supercapacitor based on NGNP can also reach 23.2 W h kg −1 at a power density of 27.7 W kg −1 . In addition, the capacitance loses only 5% after repeating test for 5000 cycles, and about 10% after 10,000 cycles at a high current density 5 A g −1 . The results demonstrate the novel ternary NGNP electrode produced by the current economical method will gain promising applications in supercapacitors and other devices by virtue of its outstanding characteristics (high specific capacitance, high power and energy density, excellent cycle life).