Highly compression-tolerant folded carbon nanotube/paper as solid-state supercapacitor electrode

• Published in: Micro & nano letters Vol. 11; no. 10; pp. 586 - 590
• Main Authors: Song, Yu, Cheng, Xiaoliang, Chen, Haotian, Han, Mengdi, Chen, Xuexian, Huang, Jiahuan, Su, Zongming, Zhang, Haixia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 01.10.2016
• Subjects: Capacitance; capacitance retention; Carbon nanotubes; Compressibility; compressible energy storage; compressible solid‐state supercapacitor; compression‐tolerant electronics; Devices; electrochemical electrodes; Electrodes; electrolytes; Electronics; highly compression‐tolerant folded carbon nanotube‐paper; maximum specific capacitance; polyvinyl alcohol‐phosphoric acid gel electrolyte; power unit; red light emitting diode; self‐powered systems; solid‐state supercapacitor electrode; Special Issue: Selected Papers from The 11th Annual IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (IEEE-NEMS 2016); stability performance; strain ability; Supercapacitors; electrochemical electrodes; compression-tolerant electronics; solid-state supercapacitor electrode; capacitance retention; capacitance; C; compressible solid-state supercapacitor; compressible energy storage; electrolytes; maximum specific capacitance; power unit; self-powered systems; carbon nanotubes; stability performance; red light emitting diode; polyvinyl alcohol-phosphoric acid gel electrolyte; highly compression-tolerant folded carbon nanotube-paper; supercapacitors; strain ability
• ISSN: 1750-0443; 1750-0443
• DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2016.0255

An original highly compression-tolerant folded carbon nanotube (CNT)/paper electrode, which could be assembled into compressible solid-state supercapacitor with polyvinyl alcohol/phosphoric acid gel electrolyte, is designed. It is worth mentioning that both the compression-tolerant ability of the folded structure and the strain ability of the CNT electrode are conducive to achieving the compressible supercapacitor. Such device could withstand pressure and shape-changing, which has great potential to be used in various environments. This compressible solid-state supercapacitor also owns the maximum specific capacitance of 11.07 mF/cm2, and capacitance retention retains more than 90% after 100 cycling times. Furthermore, the stability performance of the device is also discussed which is almost steady under 50% strain state. When two devices are connected in serial and fully charged, this power unit could light up a red light emitting diode continuously even under the compression state. Therefore, this device performs as a promising candidate to be compatible with other compression-tolerant electronics and enlightens a broad field of compressible energy storage and self-powered systems.