Light my wire: Aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers are wrapped around a TiO2 nanowire that is several centimeters long. Treating the ends of the nanotube wire with a light‐sensitive dye and an electrolyte, creates photoelectric‐conversion and energy‐storage regions in the same device (see scheme). The “wire” shows a high overall photoelectric conversion and storage efficiency of 1.5 %.

A coaxial electric double-layer capacitor fiber is developed from the aligned carbon nanotube fiber and sheet, which functions as two electrodes with a polymer gel sandwiched between them. The unique coaxial structure enables a rapid transportation of ions between the two electrodes with a high electrochemical performance. These energy storage fibers are also flexible and stretchable, and can be woven into and widely used for electronic textiles.

An all-solid-state, coaxial and self-powered "energy fiber" is demonstrated that simultaneously converts solar energy to electric energy and further stores it. The "energy fiber" is flexible and can be scaled up for the practical application by the well-developed textile technology, and may open a new avenue to future photoelectronics and electronics.

An electrochromic fiber-shaped super-capacitor is developed by winding aligned carbon nanotube/polyaniline composite sheets on an elastic fiber. The fiber-shaped supercapacitors demonstrate rapid and reversible chromatic transitions under different working states, which can be directly observed by the naked eye. They are also stretchable and flexible, and are woven into textiles to display designed signals in addition to storing energy.

Twisted, aligned carbon nanotube/silicon composite fibers with remarkable mechanical and electronic properties are designed to develop novel flexible lithium-ion batteries with a high cyclic stability. The core-sheath architecture and the aligned structure of the composite nanotube offer excellent combined properties.

Inspired by the fantastic and fast-growing wearable electronics such as Google Glass and Apple iWatch, matchable lightweight and weaveable energy storage systems are urgently demanded while remaining as a bottleneck in the whole technology. Fiber-shaped energy storage devices that can be woven into electronic textiles may represent a general and effective strategy to overcome the above difficulty. Here a coaxial fiber lithium-ion battery has been achieved by sequentially winding aligned carbon nanotube composite yarn cathode and anode onto a cotton fiber. Novel yarn structures are designed to enable a high performance with a linear energy density of 0.75 mWh cm(-1). A wearable energy storage textile is also produced with an areal energy density of 4.5 mWh cm(-2).

Smart supercapacitors are developed by depositing conducting polymers onto aligned carbon-nanotube sheets. These supercapacitors rapidly and reversibly demonstrate color changes in response to a variation in the level of stored energy and the chromatic transitions can be directly observed by the naked eye.

Polyaniline composite films incorporated with aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are synthesized through an easy electrodeposition process. These robust and electrically conductive films are found to function as effective electrodes to fabricate transparent and flexible supercapacitors with a maximum specific capacitance of 233 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g. It is 36 times of bare MWCNT sheet, 23 times of pure polyaniline and 3 times of randomly dispersed MWCNT/polyaniline film under the same conditions. The novel supercapacitors also show a high cyclic stability.