Electrochemical Investigation of Polypyrrole/Nd2O3 Nanocomposite as High Performance Supercapacitor Material on Mild Steel Substrate

The PPy films prepared on the mild steel substrate in the absence of the non-conductive iron(II) oxalate layer can be used as the effective electrodes for electrochemical supercapacitors. This study introduces a nanocomposite material for electrochemical redox capacitors, which has advantages, such as long life cycle and stability in an aqueous electrolyte. A polypyrrole/Nd2O3 thin film electrode was synthesized electrochemically as an electrochemical supercapacitor. The supercapacitive performance of the PPy/Nd2O3 coated electrode was investigated in 0.1 M H2SO4 solution using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The calculated specific capacitance of the PPy and PPy/Nd2O3 electrodes using the CV method was 119 and 259 F.g-1, respectively. The PPy/Nd2O3 nanocomposite as a capacitor material has shown some advantages such as long life cycle and stability in an aqueous electrolyte. The retention of capacitance after 3000 cycles was about 88% of the initial capacitance at the current density of 1 A.g-1. According to EIS data, the supercapacitor using PPy/Nd2O3 nanocomposite material on mild steel substrate has high specific capacitance of 268 F.g-1 compared with 125 F.g-1 for PPy coating.