Improving the multifunctionality of structural supercapacitors by interleaving graphene nanoplatelets between carbon fibers and solid polymer electrolyte

Abstract

Novel structural supercapacitors, containing graphene nanoplatelets incorporated carbon fiber mats as electrodes, crosslinked diglycidylether of bisphenol-A epoxy polymer electrolyte and filter paper separator, have been manufactured for the first time by vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process. These supercapacitors can bear structural loads and store electrochemical energy at the same time. Loading of high surface area graphene nanoplatelets on carbon fiber mats is an effective process to improve the charge storage capacity of the electrodes. Electrochemical and structural properties of the structural supercapacitors are explored through in-plane shear testing, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, chronoamperometry and impedance spectroscopy, respectively. As graphene nanoplatelet loadings on carbon fiber mat electrodes increase from 0 to 10 wt.%, the structural supercapacitors exhibit significant improvements in specific capacitance (8.9–118.7 mF·cm−3), energy density (19.7–263.8 Wh·m−3) and normalized in-plane shear modulus (1.7–3.1 GPa). Thus, this study has revealed that using the graphene nanoplatelet loaded carbon fiber mats as structural supercapacitor electrodes is a relatively novel and easy approach to enhance the multifunctionality of structural supercapacitors.

High-Performance Structural Supercapacitors Based on Aligned Discontinuous Carbon Fiber Electrodes and Solid Polymer Electrolytes

“…Compared to other reports on the flexural properties of SSCs based on woven carbon fiber fabric electrodes, the present work showed obvious improvements in both flexural strength and flexural modulus (Table ). These values are also higher than shear strength (3.58–25.5 MPa) and shear modulus (0.28–2.78 GPa) measurements of previously reported SSCs. ,,− This may be attributed to the intrinsically superior mechanical properties of TuFF composites.…”

Mechanical analysis of flexible integrated energy storage devices under bending by the finite element method

“…To investigate the influences of d electrode , E electrode , d electrolyte , and E electrolyte on SE and von Mises stress (or Mises stress) of the ESDs, four groups denoted by Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were developed, with one variable (d electrode , E electrode , d electrolyte , or E electrolyte ) in each group, respectively (Table 1). The values for each variable were selected from references, covering the range of almost all the Young's moduli and thicknesses of materials used in the corresponding components of the flexible ESDs [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. The ratios of d electrode to d electrolyte and E electrode to E electrolyte were defined as µ and λ, respectively (Fig.…”

Surface Functionalization of Electrodes and Synthesis of Dual-Phase Solid Electrolytes for Structural Supercapacitors

“…14 The main drawback of these methods is the loss of mechanical rigidity. To avoid this issue, carbon nanomaterials such as graphene nanoplatelets, 15 urea-activated graphene nanoflakes, 16 carbon aerogel, 17 and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) 18−20 have been used as electrode material coatings on CFs to improve the electrochemical performance due to the excellent electrical conductivity and high surface areas of those materials 21 and the excellent mechanical properties owing to enhancement of the fiber−matrix interfacial strength. 22 Moreover, metal oxides, including copper oxide (CuO) nanowires, 23 zinc oxide (ZnO) nanotubes, 23 manganese dioxide (MnO 2 ), 24 copper−cobalt−selenide (Cu−Co−Se) nanowires, 25 have been grafted onto CFs to serve as electrode active materials due to their good capacitive performance 13 and improved mechanical properties as fiber-reinforced polymer composites.…”