Flexible Supercapacitors Based on Stretchable Conducting Polymer Electrodes

Abstract

Supercapacitors are widely used in various fields due to their high power density, fast charging and discharging speeds, and long service life. However, with the increasing demand for flexible electronics, integrated supercapacitors in devices are also facing more challenges, such as extensibility, bending stability, and operability. Despite many reports on stretchable supercapacitors, challenges still exist in their preparation process, which involves multiple steps. Therefore, we prepared stretchable conducting polymer electrodes by depositing thiophene and 3-methylthiophene on patterned 304 stainless steel (SS 304) through electropolymerization. The cycling stability of the prepared stretchable electrodes could be further improved by protecting them with poly(vinyl alcohol)/sulfuric acid (PVA/H2SO4) gel electrolyte. Specifically, the mechanical stability of the polythiophene (PTh) electrode was improved by 2.5%, and the stability of the poly(3-methylthiophene (P3MeT) electrode was improved by 7.0%. As a result, the assembled flexible supercapacitors maintained 93% of their stability even after 10,000 cycles of strain at 100%, which indicates potential applications in flexible electronics.

Stretchable and Highly Sensitive Flexible Strain Sensor Based on a Three‐Layer Core–Shell Structure of Polydopamine/Polypyrrole@Natural Rubber for Human Activity Monitoring

“…[35][36][37] Sensors based on conductive polymer (CP) composites have gained popularity due to their easy sensing structure, lightweight nature, high flexibility, and stretchability. [38][39][40][41] Among these materials, PPy is particularly favored for its inexpensiveness, nontoxicity, environmental stability, ease of synthesis, and high conductivity. [42,43] For instance, Yin et al [44] synthesized a water-soluble self-doped conducting DOI: 10.1002/adem.202301952…”

Sub-mm3 dimensional scaling of fully-integrated additively-fabricated microsupercapacitors for embedded energy storage applications

“…1,2,3,4,5 They have been used in versatile systems, such as so robots, 6 wearable electronics, 7,8,9 and they possess potential applications for Internet of Things (IoT), 10 to name a few, acting as energy storage devices. Wide ranges of materials, such as carbonaceous materials, 11,12 metal oxides, 13,14 MXenes, 15,16 and conductive polymers 17,18 have been used in these systems as the electrode active materials with the aim to maximize the performance of these systems. Depending on the energy and power requirements of the specic microelectronic system, their energy storage/delivery systems should be custom designed.…”

Controlled Alignment of Carbon Black Nanoparticles in Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers for Flexible Films

“…Recently, the massive growing demand for flexible electronic gadgets has driven researchers to develop ultra-flexible and lightweight devices [1][2][3]. To realize such flexible devices, electrolytes, a polymeric separator, bendable electrodes, and the device case, among other items, are required.…”