One-step electrochemical preparation of ternary phthalocyanine/acid-activated multiwalled carbon nanotube/polypyrrole-based electrodes and their supercapacitor applications

In the present work, we report one-step preparation of phthalocyanine/acid-activated multiwalled carbon nanotube/polypyrrole modified pencil graphite electrodes (Pc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE) for electrochemical supercapacitor applications. Conducting polymer-based ternary electrode materials were prepared by in situ electropolymerization of pyrrole in the presence of AA-MWCNT and Pc. The structures of prepared electrodes were characterized by different techniques such as Fourier transform infrared, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectrometer, atomic force microscope, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to examine their structural and electrochemical properties. This study examines for the first time supercapacitive properties of ZnPc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE and CuPc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE. The specific capacitances of electrodes have been found as 304 F/g for CuPc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE and 117 F/g ZnPc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE with 10 A/g charge-discharge current densities. When compared to all preparation electrode materials in the literature, CuPc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE exhibited superior supercapacitive behavior. The synergistic effect of PPy, AA-MWCNT, and Pc with excellent physical interface presents better charge storage capacity and less charge transfer resistance. We observed that the Pc/AA-MWCNT/PPy/PGE electrodes can synergistically improve the charge storage property in comparison to its individual constituents.