Electroactive Polymers for Supercapacitor Applications

Electroactive/conducting polymer-based light weight and flexible supercapacitor electrodes are promising candidates for energy storage applications. This chapter focuses on detailed discussions of various types of supercapacitor electrodes based on their working mechanisms, and various conducting polymers such as polypyrrole, polyaniline, polyindole and polythiophene/polythiophene derivatives employed for energy storage applications. This chapter further throws light on the relationship between conductivity, polymer structure, fabrication strategies, electrochemical characteristics etc. Strategies to improve the electrochemical features such as incorporation of nanoarchitectures, selection of electrolytes and significance of interface engineering have been discussed in detail. The mechanical instability of conducting polymer-based supercapacitor electrodes during bending and twisting has also been addressed.