Aging Effect of Catechol Redox Polymer Nanoparticles for Hybrid Supercapacitors

Redox-polymer nanoparticles are a promising solution to avoid the detrimental dissolution of organic electrode materials while showing discrete redox processes. In this work, catechol-based redox-active polymer (cRPNs) were synthesized through one-step emulsion polymerization with tunable size from 25 150 nm. The fresh cRPNs characterized and showed reversible process centered at 0.50 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in 1 M H2SO4. Unexpectedly, cRPN latex aged after days passing white pink. This aging resulted shift its potential toward higher values, which could be associated autoxidation catechol groups subsequent crosslinking NPs due dimer formation. Finally, we compared performance hybrid supercapacitor device, proving how effect had some benefits such as an increase voltage output, specific capacitance, cyclability Coulombic efficiencies device.