The facile synthetic approach of ruthenium oxide nanoparticles using double hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBCs) and their application toward the supercapacitor is presented. Nanostructured hydrous ruthenium oxide (RuO2) nanoparticles are synthesized using DHBCs of poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(acrylic acid) as a template, forming a micelle upon addition of the ruthenium precursor, which then transformed into RuO2 nanoparticles. Through annealing at 400 oC, we found that the crystallinity of RuO2 nanoparticles increases considerably with a simultaneous transformation of the surrounding double hydrophilic block copolymer into ionic and electronic conducting buffer layer atop RuO2 nanoparticles, which contribute to the significant enhancement of the overall specific capacitance from 106 to 962 F/g at 10 mV/s. The RuO2 nanoparticles annealed at 400 oC also exhibit a superior retention of capacitance over 1000 cycles at very high charge/discharge rate at 20 A/g.

Versatile double hydrophilic block copolymer: Dual role as synthetic nanoreactor and ionic electronic conduction layer for ruthenium oxide nanoparticle supercapacitor

244th National Meeting (2012)

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