Manufacturing Shape-Controllable Flexible PEDOT/rGO Composite Electrodes for Planar Micro-Supercapacitors

Materials (Basel). 2024 May 3;17(9):2144. doi: 10.3390/ma17092144.

Abstract

Flexible electronic products, with their characteristics of flexibility and wearability, have attracted significant attention and have become an important direction in the research and development of the electronics industry. Planar micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) with flexible composite electrodes can provide reliable energy support for these products, propelling their further development. The research employed a quick, effective, and environmentally friendly method of laser scribing to create shape-controllable flexible composite electrodes on composite films of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and graphene oxide (PEDOT/GO), which were subsequently assembled into MSCs. An analysis of the composite electrode morphology, structure, and elemental distribution was conducted through the utilization of SEM, TEM, and XPS techniques. Following this, a comprehensive evaluation of the electrochemical performance of the flexible MSCs was carried out, which included cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD), and assessment of cyclic stability. The analysis of the CV results indicated that the MSCs achieved the areal capacitance of 5.78 mF/cm2 at 5 mV/s. After 5000 cycles at a current density of 0.05 mA/cm2, the capacitance retention rate was 85.4%. The high areal capacitance and strong cycle stability of MSCs highlight the potential of PEDOT/reduced graphene oxide (PEDOT/rGO) electrodes in electrode applications.

Keywords: Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene); areal capacitance; composite electrode; flexibility; graphene oxide; laser scribing; micro-supercapacitors.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province under Grant BK20231229.