In various wearable energy storage devices, the shape of fiber or yarn has many advantages owing to their compatibility with the environment in which they are deployed. We present a systematic approach to maximizing the capacitance of a supercapacitor yarn by significantly increasing the yarn's surface area by growing a high density of nanorods around the yarn, followed by coating the surface with a pseudo-capacitive material. The two-step strategy is implemented using a dry-spun carbon nanotube yarn-based electrode, which is surrounded by a zinc oxide nanorod forest that is coated by a pseudo-capacitive nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide material. The flexible as-prepared electrode exhibits a maximum capacitance of 1065 mF cm À 2 (1278 F g À 1 ) at a scan rate of 5 mV s À 1 and an excellent capacitance retention of 60.5% over 7000 cycles at a current density of 30 mA cm À 2 . The outstanding performance of the composite yarn supercapacitor can be ascribed to the enhanced ion accessibility to the deep surface of the nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide layer through the porous carbon nanotube yarn. Furthermore, the symmetric supercapacitor configuration demonstrated nearly 100% capacity retention at a bending angle of 150 � .
Graphene nanoflake toxicity was analyzed using cell-based electrochemical impedance biosensing with interdigitated indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes installed in a custom-built mini-incubator positioned on an inverted optical microscope. Sensing with electrochemical measurements from interdigitated ITO electrodes was highly linear (R(2) = 0.93 and 0.96 for anodic peak current (Ipa) and cathodic peak current (Ipc), respectively). Size-dependent analysis of Graphene nanoflake toxicity was carried out in a mini-incubator system with cultured HeLa cells treated with Graphene nanoflakes having an average size of 80 or 30 nm for one day. Biological assays of cell proliferation and viability complemented electrochemical impedance measurements. The increased toxicity of smaller Graphene nanoflakes (30 nm) as measured by electrochemical impedance sensing and optical monitoring of treated cells was consistent with the biological assay results. Cell-based electrochemical impedance biosensing can be used to assess the toxicity of nanomaterials with different biomedical and environmental applications.
Flexible superconducting yarns consisting of sputter‐deposited NbN nanowires on highly aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) array sheets are reported. In the microscopic view, the NbN nanowires are formed on top of individual CNT fibrils, and the superconductivity property of the twist‐spun NbN–CNT yarn system is comparable to that of a typical NbN thin film on a normal solid substrate. Because of its intrinsic porosity, the system exhibits superior mechanical flexibility with a small bending radius. It also remains a superconducting state even when subjected to severe mechanical deformations, primarily due to the proximity superconductivity through carbon nanotube bundles. The results demonstrate the possibility of fabricating flexible superconducting yarns in a conventional thin‐film deposition process, using ultraflexible free‐standing CNT sheets as a template. In addition, preliminary tests on reducing the normal‐state resistance toward superconducting cable applications are presented.
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