Sustainable Fabrication of rGO/CuS/PANI Ternary Hybrids: Unveiling Synergistic Redox Behavior for High-Performance Supercapacitors and Catalytic Reduction

The sustainable synthesis of ternary nanocomposites has emerged as a key research focus, offering a promising pathway to concurrently address energy storage and environmental remediation challenges. Herein, a liquid–liquid interfacial method has been utilized to fabricate rGCS/PANI nanocomposites derived from a CuS nanoplate/rGO hybrid. Detailed characterizations reveal a homogeneous dispersion of the active components within the PANI matrix. The composites exhibit outstanding electrochemical performance compared to rGCS and CuS, achieving a high specific capacitance of 833 F g–1 at a current density of 1 A g–1, with pseudocapacitive behavior and dominant capacitive redox processes that persist even at higher current densities. The composite maintains excellent cycling stability, retaining 89% of its initial capacitance after 5000 GCD cycles at 5 A g–1. Additionally, the rGCS/PANI composite demonstrates fast catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol, achieving 98% reduction within 4 min. This superior performance of rGCS/PANI can be attributed to the synergistic structure, which provides abundant redox-active sites, rapid charge transport pathways, strong interfacial interactions, and a well-dispersed conductive network that collectively enhance electrochemical performance and catalytic kinetics. This study provides a pathway for the sustainable engineering of ternary nanocomposites with improved electrochemical and catalytic properties, offering significant potential applications in energy and environmental technologies.