Wearable Solid-State Supercapacitors Operating at High Working Voltage with a Flexible Nanocomposite Electrode

Xiaoyan Li; Jun Wang; Yaping Zhao; Fengyan Ge; Sridhar Komarneni; Zaisheng Cai

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b06156

Wearable Solid-State Supercapacitors Operating at High Working Voltage with a Flexible Nanocomposite Electrode

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Oct 5;8(39):25905-25914. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b06156. Epub 2016 Sep 26.

Authors

Xiaoyan Li^{1

2}, Jun Wang¹, Yaping Zhao¹, Fengyan Ge¹, Sridhar Komarneni², Zaisheng Cai¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and Key Laboratory of Science & Technology of Eco-Textile, Ministry of Education, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, P.R. China.
² Materials Research Institute, Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.

PMID: 27618744
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b06156

Abstract

The proposed approach for fabricating ultralight self-sustained electrodes facilitates the structural integration of highly flexible carbon nanofibers, amino-modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (AM-MWNT), and MnO₂ nanoflakes for potential use in wearable supercapacitors. Because of the higher orientation of AM-MWNT and the sublimation of terephthalic acid (PTA) in the carbonization process, freestanding electrodes could be realized with high porosity and flexibility and could possess remarkable electrochemical properties without using polymer substrates. Wearable symmetric solid-state supercapacitors were further assembled using a LiCl/PVA gel electrolyte, which exhibit a maximum energy density of 44.57 Wh/kg (at a power density of 337.1 W/kg) and a power density of 13330 W/kg (at an energy density of 19.64 Wh/kg) with a working voltage as high as 1.8 V. Due to the combination of several favorable traits such as flexibility, high energy density, and excellent electrochemical cyclability, the presently developed wearable supercapacitors with wide potential windows are expected to be useful for new kinds of portable electric devices.

Keywords: MnO2 nanoflakes; amino-modified multiwalled carbon nanotube; carbon nanofiber; freestanding electrode; high working voltage; wearable solid-state supercapacitor.