Ag2S-Ag2O-Ag/poly-2-aminobenzene-1-thiol Nanocomposite as a Promising Two-Electrode Symmetric Supercapacitor: Tested in Acidic and Basic Mediums

Mohamed Rabia; Asmaa M Elsayed; Maha Abdallah Alnuwaiser; Ahmed Adel A Abdelazeez

doi:10.3390/mi14071423

Ag₂S-Ag₂O-Ag/poly-2-aminobenzene-1-thiol Nanocomposite as a Promising Two-Electrode Symmetric Supercapacitor: Tested in Acidic and Basic Mediums

Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Jul 14;14(7):1423. doi: 10.3390/mi14071423.

Authors

Mohamed Rabia¹, Asmaa M Elsayed², Maha Abdallah Alnuwaiser³, Ahmed Adel A Abdelazeez⁴

Affiliations

¹ Nanomaterials Science Research Laboratory, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62514, Egypt.
² TH-PPM Group, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62514, Egypt.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Nanoscale Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.

Abstract

A Ag₂S-Ag₂O-Ag/poly-2-aminobenzene-1-thiol (P2ABT) nanocomposite was prepared using the photopolymerization reaction using AgNO₃ as an oxidant. The size of the nanocomposite was about 40 nm, in which the morphology was confirmed using TEM and SEM analyses. The functional groups of Ag₂S-Ag₂O-Ag/P2ABT were confirmed using FTIR; also, XRD confirmed the inorganic Ag₂S, Ag, and Ag₂O formation. This nanocomposite has great performance in supercapacitor applications, with it tested in acidic (1.0 M HCl) and basic mediums (1.0 M NaOH). This pseudo-capacitor has great performance that appeared through the charge time in an acid medium in comparison to the basic medium with values of 118 s and 103 s, correspondingly. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis further confirmed the excellent performance of the supercapacitor material, as indicated by the large area under the cyclic curve. The specific capacitance (C_S) and energy density (E) values (at 0.3 A/g) were 92.5 and 44.4 F/g and 5.0 and 2.52 W·h·Kg^-1 in the acidic and basic mediums, correspondingly. The charge transfer was studied through a Nyquist plot, and the produced R_s values were 4.9 and 6.2 Ω, respectively. Building on these findings, our objective is to make a significant contribution to the progress of supercapacitor technology through a prototype design soon.

Keywords: Ag2S-Ag2O-Ag/poly-2-aminothiophenol; acidic and basic medium; nanocomposite; supercapacitor.

Grants and funding

PNURSP2023R186/Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2023R186), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.