Controllable synthesis of zinc ferrite nanostructure with tunable morphology on polyaniline nanocomposite for supercapacitor application

Supercapacitors (SCs), as some of the high-performance energy storage devices, are promising candidates to meet the growing energy consumption demand due to their exceptional power density, high intrinsic safety, and long cycle lifetime. Here, ternary nanocomposites composed of polyaniline (PANI), graphene oxide (GO), and ZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticles with flower-like, spherical, and rod-shaped nanostructures are synthesized and used as a hybrid SC. The fabricated nanocomposite exhibited excellent performance due to the high capacitance of PANI, exceptional stability and reversibility of GO, and remarkable power density of ZnFe₂O₄ (ZFO) nanoparticles. Spherical morphology of ZFO nanoparticles demonstrated the highest energy-saving performance for PANI/GO/ZFS nanocomposites compared to their counterparts featuring a specific capacitance of 594 F/g, the energy density of 45.18 W.h/kg, the power density of 302.73 W/kg, and remarkable cycle stability of 82% after 1500 cycles. These findings demonstrated the great potential of PANI/GO/ZFS hybrid electrodes as novel and effective supercapacitors for various applications from electronic devices to transportation.