Towards enhanced electrochemical capacitance with self-assembled synthesis of poly(pyrrole-co-o-toluidine) nanoparticles

ABSTRACT Poly(pyrrole‐co‐o‐toluidine) (PPOT) nanoparticles for electrochemical capacitors are easily and productively synthesized by a chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrrole (PY) and o‐toluidine (OT) in 0.5M HCl without any external additive. The polymerization yield, electrical conductivity, and size of the copolymer nanoparticles can significantly be optimized by the oxidant/monomer molar ratio and polymerization temperature. The chemical structure of the obtained copolymer is characterized by UV–vis and FTIR. The copolymer nanoparticles synthesized at 10°C are found to generally have irregular granular morphology with a diameter of 60–100 nm and a small polydispersity index of 1.06 by laser particle‐size analyzer, FE‐SEM, and TEM, and good dispersibility in water. The formation mechanism of the nanoparticles is proposed based on the powerful amphipathicity from comonomer aggregate formed by PY and OT in the monomer solution. The PPOT nanoparticles possess a specific capacitance of 310 F g−1 at 25 mV s−1 as well as retain 81% of the initial specific capacitance value after 1000 cycles, while its energy density and power density are found to be 40.2 and 1196 W Kg−1 at 2 A g−1. The enhanced electrochemical properties can be attributed to the nanostructural advantage of the PPOT. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 42995.