Detonation Nanodiamond and Onion‐Like‐Carbon‐Embedded Polyaniline for Supercapacitors

Abstract

Abstract The detonation nanodiamond is a versatile low‐cost nanomaterial with tunable properties and surface chemistry. In this work, it is shown how the application of nanodiamond (ND) can greatly increase the performance of electrochemically active polymers, such as polyaniline (PANI). Symmetric supercapacitors containing PANI‐ND nanocomposite electrodes with 3–28 wt% ND show dramatically improved cycle stability and higher capacitance retention at fast sweep rate than pure PANI electrodes. Contrary to other PANI‐carbon nanocomposites, specific capacitance of the selected PANI electrodes with embedded ND increases after 10 000 galvanostatic cycles and reaches 640 F g −1 , when measured in a symmetric two‐electrode configuration with 1 M H 2 SO 4 electrolyte. The demonstrated specific capacitance is 3–4 times higher than that of the activated carbons and more than 15 times higher than that of ND and onion‐like carbon (OLC).