Core–sheath structured bacterial cellulose/polypyrrole nanocomposites with excellent conductivity as supercapacitors

Abstract

Core–sheath structured conductive nanocomposites were prepared by wrapping a homogenous layer of polypyrrole (PPy) around bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers via in situ polymerization of self-assembled pyrrole. By manipulating the ordered core–sheath nanostructure, BC/PPy nanocomposites were achieved and outstanding electrical conductivity as high as 77 S cm−1 was obtained with the optimized reaction protocols, i.e., feeding mass ratio of BC/Py 1 : 10, molar ratio of FeCl3/Py 0.5 : 1, molar ratio of HCl/Py 1.2 : 1, volume ratio of DMF–H2O 1 : 2, reaction temperature 0 °C, and reaction time 6 h. The BC/PPy nanocomposites demonstrated promising potential for supercapacitors, with a highest mass specific capacitance hitting 316 F g−1 at 0.2 A g−1 current density. The whole-optimized protocol in preparing highly conductive PPy/BC composites may be readily extended to the preparation of new conductive materials based on core–sheath structured BC nanocomposites for various technological applications.