Flexible and Weaveable Capacitor Wire Based on a Carbon Nanocomposite Fiber

Abstract

A flexible and weaveable electric double-layer capacitor wire is developed by twisting two aligned carbon nanotube/ordered mesoporous carbon composite fibers with remarkable mechanical and electronic properties as electrodes. This capacitor wire exhibits high specific capacitance and long life stability. Compared with the conventional planar structure, the capacitor wire is also lightweight and can be integrated into various textile structures that are particularly promising for portable and wearable electronic devices.

A General Electrode Design Strategy for Flexible Fiber Micro‐Pseudocapacitors Combining Ultrahigh Energy and Power Delivery

“…The specific areal capacitance of our solid‐state fiber device with PVA/KOH electrolyte at 0.41 mA cm −2 is ≈2–350 times of previously reported solid‐state fiber SCs measured at much lower rates (typically 0.01–0.1 mA cm −2 ) reported so far (see Table S1, Supporting Information) 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. More importantly, both the areal energy and power densities of 18.83 µWh cm −2 and 16.33 mW cm −2 based on the device (75.32 µWh cm −2 and 65.32 mW cm −2 based on one electrode) are substantially higher than those of previous advanced fiber devices using hollow rGO/PEDOT: PSS fiber (6.8 µWh cm −2 , 0.166 mW cm −2 ),30 rGO/MnO 2 /PPy@metal yarn (9.2 µWh cm −2 , 1.5 mW cm −2 ),31 MnO 2 /CNT fiber (8.5 µWh cm −2 ),20 PPy@CNTs@urethane elastic fibers (6.13 µWh cm −2 , 0.133 mW cm −2 ),26 GO/CNT@carboxymethyl cellulose fibers (3.84 µWh cm −2 , 0.19 mW cm −2 ),5 and nanoporous Au wire@MnO 2 //CNT/carbon fibers (5.4 µWh cm −2 , 2.53 mW cm −2 ) 36.…”

“…However, the major bottleneck for the existing fiber m‐SCs lies in their much lower areal energy density relative to routine planar SCs8 or batteries 2. In this context, considerable efforts were concentrated on exploring proper fiber electrode materials with large capacitance for improving the energy density, while maintaining high power density 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Various carbonaceous materials like activated carbon,9, 10 carbon nanotubes (CNTs),11, 12, 13 reduced graphene oxide (rGO),14, 15, 16 and our recently developed rGO/CNT hybrids17, 18 were exploited as active materials for fiber m‐SCs, yet their applications are restricted by the low capacitance of <200 mF cm −2 .…”

“…To our knowledge, the areal energy and power densities for our prototype device represent the highest values among all solid‐state symmetric fiber SCs (Table S1, Supporting Information). 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 …”

Fiber‐Type Solar Cells, Nanogenerators, Batteries, and Supercapacitors for Wearable Applications

“…The supercapacitors with linear architecture made from fiber electrodes have an interlaced structure, which allows the constituent filaments to move freely relative to each other providing freedom for body movements and permeability to air and moisture 141. These linear architecture devices are fabricated on linear substrates such as metal wires, plastic/rubber wires, carbon wires, carbon nanofibers, CNT yarns, CNT nanocomposites fibers, graphene fibers, and graphene composite fibers 129, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148. The substrate serves as both the support structure and the current collector for the active materials.…”

Symmetric Electrodes for Electrochemical Energy‐Storage Devices

“…Recently, a number of excellent reviews and reports on the design, preparation, modification, characterization, properties, engineering, and applications of carbon‐based materials for symmetry‐structured EDLCs have been published 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87…”