Natural Cellulose Fiber as Substrate for Supercapacitor

Abstract

Cellulose fibers with porous structure and electrolyte absorption properties are considered to be a good potential substrate for the deposition of energy material for energy storage devices. Unlike traditional substrates, such as gold or stainless steel, paper prepared from cellulose fibers in this study not only functions as a substrate with large surface area but also acts as an interior electrolyte reservoir, where electrolyte can be absorbed much in the cellulose fibers and is ready to diffuse into an energy storage material. We demonstrated the value of this internal electrolyte reservoir by comparing a series of hierarchical hybrid supercapacitor electrodes based on homemade cellulose paper or polyester textile integrated with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by simple solution dip and electrodeposited with MnO2. Atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 onto the fiber surface was used to limit electrolyte absorption into the fibers for comparison. Configurations designed with different numbers of ion diffusion pathways were compared to show that cellulose fibers in paper can act as a good interior electrolyte reservoir and provide an effective pathway for ion transport facilitation. Further optimization using an additional CNT coating resulted in an electrode of paper/CNTs/MnO2/CNTs, which has dual ion diffusion and electron transfer pathways and demonstrated superior supercapacitive performance. This paper highlights the merits of the mesoporous cellulose fibers as substrates for supercapacitor electrodes, in which the water-swelling effect of the cellulose fibers can absorb electrolyte, and the mesoporous internal structure of the fibers can provide channels for ions to diffuse to the electrochemical energy storage materials.

Hybrid system of nickel–cobalt hydroxide on carbonised natural cellulose materials for supercapacitors

“…The carbonised CP was cut into small square pieces of 0.7 cm diameter and directly used as a working electrode with a titanium plate as current collector. Cotton pulp was left to soak in distilled Milli-Q water for 24 h in order to wet the material and provide full accessibility for electrolyte uptake [24,25]. The characterisation of CP, including thermogravimetric curves, scanning electron microscope, conductive atomic force microscope and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller result, was reported in a previous paper [23].…”

Cellulose Nanocrystals as Advanced "Green" Materials for Biological and Biomedical Engineering

“…The 3D hierarchical structure, porosity and electrolyte absorption properties of cellulose fibers can be exploited for many advanced energy devices. Recently, composites made of combinations of cellulose, carbon nanotubes, and manganese dioxide demonstrated superior supercapacitive performance (Gui et al, 2013). The interconnected porosity provided good diffusion channels, facilitating fast access of ionic species to the electrode surfaces (Zheng et al, 2013).…”

Thermal Dynamics and a Comparison of the Thermal Stability of Various Non-Wood Pulps

“…Such specific types of paper include capacitor paper, insulation paper, and archival paper (Gui et al 2013;Huang et al 2013;Zhu et al 2013). These papers need to have resistance to both high heat and aging.…”