The ordered polyaniline nanowires wrapped on the polypyrrole nanotubes as electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage

• Orderly and highly dense PANI nanowires grown onto the PPy hollow nanotubes was designed. • The highest specific capacitance of PPy@PANI nanotubes electrode was about 765 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s. • The electrochemical performance of PPy@PANI nanotubes electrode was caused synergistic effects of PANI and PPy. Conductive polymers can act as the supercapacitor electrode materials which have great potential applications in small energy storage devices. In this article, the polypyrrole (PPy) hollow nanotubes had been prepared by a simple chemical synthesis method, and then the ordered polyaniline (PANI) nanowires can be wrapped on PPy hollow nanotubes by a dilute solution method to form the PPy@PANI composites. The as-prepared PANI nanowires orderedly grew onto the surface of PPy hollow nanotubes, which was beneficial to the ions diffusion from a bulky solution to the surface of active materials when it was used as the supercapacitor electrode. The highest specific capacitance of PPy@PANI nanotubes electrode was about 765 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s, and the capacitance loss was only 13.7% after 1000 charging/discharging cycles. It was superior or close to many reported PPy/PANI composites based electrodes. Moreover, the PPy@PANI nanotubes possessed higher specific capacitance and better long-life cycle stability than individual pure PPy nanotubes and PANI, exhibiting a synergistic effect of PPy and PANI. This study can give a guide to prepare combined functional conductive polymers/nanomaterials used in supercapacitor. The orderly and highly dense polyaniline nanowires had been successfully grown onto the surface of polypyrrole hollow nanotubes via a one step of facile chemical oxidation method. The as-prepared polypyrrole@polyaniline hollow nanotubes had excellent electrochemical performance with SC value of 765 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s. This study can give a guide to prepare combined functional conductive polymers/nanomaterials used in supercapacitor