Conducting polymer and reduced graphene oxide Langmuir-Blodgett films: a hybrid nanostructure for high performance electrode applications

In this work, we prepared a reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) hybrid composite with well defined nanostructure. The graphene oxide (GO) was first deposited on substrate through the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition, which provided a tunable and ordered GO arrangement on substrate. Then the GO LB films were reduced to RGO by following thermal treatment, and a ultrathin conducting polymer (CP) PEDOT was directly coated on RGO through a vapor phase polymerization process. The RGO/PEDOT nanocomposite exhibits excellent electrical conductivity about 377.2 S/cm. Electrochemical activity investigation revealed that this nanocomposite exhibits 213 F/g high specific capacitance at a 0.5 A/g current density and shows better capacitance retention rate than pure PEDOT. The detailed study also confirmed that the arrangement of RGO shows distinct influence on the electrical and electrochemical properties of obtained nanocomposite. Large area RGO/PEDOT nanocomposite with high conductivity and electrochemical activity can be deposited on different substrates. Such high conductivity and electrochemical activity RGO/CP nanocomposite shows promising application future in organic and flexible electrode materials for sustainable energy storage.