An Eco-Friendly, Nanocellulose/RGO/in Situ Formed Polyaniline for Flexible and Free-Standing Supercapacitors

Abstract

There have been extensive demands for eco-friendly, lightweight, flexible, and high performance supercapacitors for advanced applications like wearable electronics, hybrid electric vehicles, and industrial grid storage. In this work, a metalless nanocellulose-based PANI/RGO electrode with excellent flexibility, mechanical strength, and conductivity was developed and assembled into sandwich-like supercapacitors. Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was mixed into aniline during the in situ polymerization of PANI to improve conductivity of the composite electrode. This eco-friendly metalless nanocellulose based electrode was fabricated via filtrations driven by a vacuum and assembled into sandwich structures. The ratios between nanocellulose, PANI, and RGO were optimized to achieve both high electrochemical performance and good mechanical properties. The composite electrode has a large active materials mass loading ratio of 16.5 mg/cm2, and the assembled supercapacitor gives small impedance at 3.90 Ω, suggesting an excellent conductivity. This work shows the great potential of developed flexible and lightweight nanocellulose composites in the fabrication of supercapacitors that can be used in a variety of biomedical applications including e-skins.

The Development of Pseudocapacitor Electrodes and Devices with High Active Mass Loading

“…[ 229 ] Of particular interests are investigations on the fabrication of flexible and free‐standing PANI–graphene/cellulose electrodes and devices with high capacitance. [ 232,233,236 ] All‐solid [ 226 ] and flexible devices were fabricated and tested. The use of carbon fiber‐bridged PANI and graphene paper and bacterial cellulose allowed for the fabrication of a highly foldable all‐solid‐state supercapacitor.…”

Morphology‐dependent electrochemical performance of nitrogen‐doped carbon dots@polyaniline hybrids for supercapacitors

“…Conductive polymer polyaniline (PANI) is considered as a dependable pseudocapacitance material due to its fascinating properties such as its high specific capacitance, conductivity, environmental stability, and low cost . Usually, PANI can be synthesized by electrochemical synthesis, spin‐coating methods, and chemical oxidation and be widely applied . Yang et al fabricated PANI materials with nanocapsule structure, and the results showed high specific capacitance (502 F g −1 ) and outstanding cycle stability.…”

“…10,11 Usually, PANI can be synthesized by electrochemical synthesis, spin-coating methods, and chemical oxidation and be widely applied. [12][13][14] Yang et al 15 fabricated PANI materials with nanocapsule structure, and the results showed high specific capacitance (502 F g −1 ) and outstanding cycle stability. Qin's group 16 synthesized polyaniline via the interfacial polymerization, and the results showed that the isopropanol content affected the morphology of PANI chains and the specific capacitance of polyaniline.…”

Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors: A Review of Recent Advances

“…FSCs have commanded a lot of concentration as one of the most important energy storage research focuses owing to their extraordinary capacitive behaviour, higher power density, higher rate capability, and higher cyclic stability in comparison with batteries and higher E d compared to the traditional capacitors [476], which provide them with a vast range of potential to be utilized in various applications. Each category of SC has its own specific features and applications, such as in portable/wearable electronic devices as well as in computer and mobile phones [2,477], high power sources for heavy lift trucks or cranes [478,479], the self-powered SCs in medical applications (e.g., flexible artificial skin, artificial intelligence, portable or implantable medical/biomedical devices) [480,481], solar applications [482][483][484]. There are several SC companies such as ELTON (Russia), Nesscap (Korea), CAP-XX (Australia), and Nippon Chemicon (Japan), which are developing various kind of SCs for different applications [485].…”