Magnetic-Assisted, Self-Healable, Yarn-Based Supercapacitor

Abstract

Yarn-based supercapacitors have received considerable attention recently, offering unprecedented opportunities for future wearable electronic devices (e.g., smart clothes). However, the reliability and lifespan of yarn-based supercapacitors can be seriously limited by accidental mechanical damage during practical applications. Therefore, a supercapacitor endowed with mechanically and electrically self-healing properties is a brilliant solution to the challenge. Compared with the conventional planar-like or large wire-like structure, the reconnection of the broken yarn electrode composed of multiple tiny fibers (diameter <20 μm) is much more difficult and challenging, which directly affects the restoration of electrical conductivity after damage. Herein, a self-healable yarn-based supercapacitor that ensures the reconnection of broken electrodes has been successfully developed by wrapping magnetic electrodes around a self-healing polymer shell. The strong force from magnetic attraction between the broken yarn electrodes benefits reconnection of fibers in the yarn electrodes during self-healing and thus offers an effective strategy for the restoration of electric conductivity, whereas the polymer shell recovers the configuration integrity and mechanical strength. With the design, the specific capacitance of our prototype can be restored up to 71.8% even after four breaking/healing cycles with great maintenance of the whole device's mechanical properties. This work may inspire the design and fabrication of other distinctive self-healable and wearable electronic devices.

Synthesis of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Polyborosiloxane Nanocomposites with Mechanically Adaptive and Self-Healing Capabilities for Flexible Conductors

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Materials decorated with self-healing feature could boost the lifetime of products and build new potentials in various areas. 7 Selfhealing conductors are currently attracting a significant number of studies, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] particularly for advanced electronic applications, including chemical sensors, 17 thermal sensors, 18 supercapacitors, [19][20][21] lithium-ion batteries, 2 and electronic skin. 7,22 Similarly, flexible conductors play an important role in the emerging fields, such as prosthetics, soft robotics, stretchable displays and human machine interfaces.…”

Self‐Healing Materials for Next‐Generation Energy Harvesting and Storage Devices

“…In another example, a self-healing polyurethane polymer was used as encapsulating material for the fiber/yarn-shaped supercapacitors. [91,92] Benefiting from the self-healing abilities of polyurethane shell, the resulting supercapacitors exhibited good stability and excellent self-healing feature to repair their mechanical damages. Considering the rapid development of flexible, portable, wearable energy harvesting and storage devices, there is an urgent need to develop multifunctional self-healing encapsulating materials (high flexibility, excellent self-healability, desirable physical and/or chemical features) for enhancing the durability and reliability of these devices.…”

Smart Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices with Self‐Protection and Self‐Adaptation Abilities

“…To address this challenge, Huang et al further designed a magnetism-assisted self-healing supercapacitor (Figure 5a). [99] A stainless steel yarn composed of numerous tiny fibers was uniformly and firmly covered with Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles which possess permanent magnetism. After that, a 2-µm-thick layer of polypyrrole (PPy) was electrodeposited onto the steel yarn with adhering Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles.…”

“…Reproduced with permission. [99] Copyright 2015, American Chemical Society. b) Preparation of the VSNPs-PAA electrolyte via polymerization using acrylic acid (AA) monomer and VSNPs crosslinker in the presence of ammonium persulfate (APS) as the initiator and phosphoric acid as a regulator of pH and water content.…”