Fabrication of Highly Flexible Hierarchical Polypyrrole/Carbon Nanotube on Eggshell Membranes for Supercapacitors

Abstract

Flexible batteries and supercapacitors (SCs) are expected to play a crucial role in energy storage and management in portable electronic devices. In addition, use of materials based on renewable resources would allow for more affordable and sustainable gadgets. In this context, eggshell membranes (ESMs) represent a promising functional platform for production of high-performance electronic components. In this work, we use ESMs for preparing flexible SCs through the incorporation of carbon nanotubes and subsequent in situ polymerization of polypyrrole, producing a highly conductive nanostructure characterized by a porous surface that exhibits both faradic and nonfaradic mechanisms for charge storage. We have found that by controlling the conducting polymer/carbon derivative relative concentration, one can maximize the corresponding capacitance to attain values up to the order 564.5 mF/cm 2 (areal capacitance), 24.8 F/cm 3 (volumetric capacitance), and 357.9 F/g (gravimetric capacitance). These bioinspired flexible devices exhibit a capacitance retention of 60% after 4000 cycles of charge/discharge and present negligible aging even after 500 bending repetitions (at a density of current 5 mA/cm 2 ). The successful use of ESM-based electrodes in association with carbon derivatives/conducting polymers confirm that the exploit of biological materials offers a promising perspective for the development of new ecofriendly electronic devices.

Wearable supercapacitors based on graphene nanoplatelets/carbon nanotubes/polypyrrole composites on cotton yarns electrodes

“…In correspondence, characteristic bands at 1340 cm −1 (D-band) and 1574 cm −1 (G-band) [43] are observed for GNP. It is worth mentioning that ratio between intensities of D-band and G-band can be explored as an estimative about sp 2 /sp 3 atomic ratio, associated to defect concentration degree in carbon structures [13,26,44,45]. Corresponding values calculated for GNP and CNT returned (I D /I G ) GNP = 0.63 while (I D /I G ) CNT = 1.11, revealing a higher order for graphene layer than corresponding defective and disordered structure of CNT-the amount of defects can be attributed to the functionalization of carbon nanotubes.…”

Energy Harvesting and Storage by Water Infiltration of Eggshell Membrane

“…Recently, utilizing eggshell membrane (ESM) as a biological material for electrochemical applications has been reported . For example, carbonized ESM was used as a natural polysulfide reservoir in Li–S batteries which achieved a high discharge capacity of 1327 mA h g −1 and high sulfur loading of 3.2 mg cm −2 .…”

“…Recently, utilizing eggshell membrane (ESM) as a biological material for electrochemical applications has been reported. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] For example, carbonized ESM was used as a natural polysulfide reservoir in Li-S batteries which achieved a high discharge capacity of 1327 mA h g À1 and high sulfur loading of 3.2 mg cm À2 . [15] Additionally, carbonized ESM was used to form the counter electrode for dyesensitized solar cells which processed improved open-circuit voltage and a competitive efficiency due to the microporerich, hierarchically porous microstructure of ESM.…”

Metal Oxynitrides as Promising Electrode Materials for Supercapacitor Applications

“…This motivates researchers and engineers to further improve existing SC technology (materials, devices and modules). [3,[33][34][35] On the other side, pseudocapacitive behaviour is due to the redox reaction of active materials occurring at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Among them, carbon materials show electric double layer capacitance (EDLC) behaviour and metal oxides (MOs), metal hydroxides (MOHs), metal nitride (MNs), metal sulphides (MSs), conducting polymers (CPs), and metal oxynitrides (MONs) show pseudocapacitive/Faradaic behaviour.…”

“…Carbon nanomaterials are known for their high specific surface area (SSA), which allows ions to be electrostatically adsorbed on its surface. [3,[33][34][35] On the other side, pseudocapacitive behaviour is due to the redox reaction of active materials occurring at the electrode/electrolyte interface. [36][37][38][39][40][41] pseudocapacitive mechanism is mainly exhibited by MOs, [42][43][44] MNs, [45][46][47] MSs, [48][49][50][51] CPs, [52,53] and MONs.…”