Electrically Conductive Polyacrylamide-Polyaniline Superabsorbing Polymer Hydrogels

This paper reports two-steps methodology for preparation of three-dimensional (3D) network supercapacitor made from superabsorbing polyacrylamide (PAM) as 3D hydrogel host matrix and polyaniline (PAN) as inherently conductive polymer. In the first step, polyacrylamide hydrogels were prepared with high water swelling capacity (≈ 500 g water/g PAM).  In the second step, polyaniline was coated on the surface of the PAM hydrogels with simple oxidative polymerization procedure. PAM hydrogels were either fully or partially coated (≈ 2 mm coating thickness). The prepared conductive hydrogels exhibited electrical resistance in the range of 100-1000 Ohm/Sq., depending on the employed doping electrolyte. The conductive hydrogels will be utilized and tested as conductive electrodes for supercapacitor applications.