Hydrogel-Assisted Polyaniline Microfiber as Controllable Electrochemical Actuatable Supercapacitor

Abstract

Flexible, controllable, and stable electrochemical supercapacitors serving as actuators at low operating voltage combining the advantages of the high power of the dielectric capacitors and the high specific energy of rechargeable batteries are important in artificial muscle technology, hybrid electric vehicles, and in short-term power sources for mobile electronic devices [ Baughman , Science , 300 , 268 (2003) ; Winter and Brodd , Chem. Rev. (Washington, D.C.) , 104 , 4245 (2004) ; Ebron , et al. , Science , 311 , 1580 (2006) ]. High capacitance, a surprising 99% inner charge contribution and actuation in the hydrogel-assisted actuatable electrochemical supercapacitor (HAES) microfiber fabricated through wet spinning of a chitosan solution, followed by the in situ chemical polymerization of aniline was made possible through the perfect utilization of the large surface area provided by the nanostructured polyaniline grown inside as well as on the surface of the fiber. The HAES electrodes with an actuation strain of 0.33% showed 703F∕g specific capacitance in 1M methane sulfonic acid, and more than 3000cycles durability. The change in impedance as well as capacitance was achieved by the controlled strain as a function of applied stress, which can establish a direct relationship between the actuation strain and specific capacitance of electrochemical supercapacitors.

Conducting polymer‐based flexible supercapacitor

“…In recent years, fabrication of ordered and aligned nanostructures, including PAn nanostructures, have received significant attention for their superior energy storage application . Kulia et al.…”

Flexible Electrodes and Electrolytes for Energy Storage

“…It is a facile and promising fabrication technique to produce long length materials with a large aspect ratio and high alignment [95,96]. It has been used in the fabrication of conducting polymers [97][98][99] and carbon-based nanomaterails: CNTs, grahene and their composites [97,[100][101][102][103][104].…”

Capacitance properties of graphite oxide/poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene) composites

“…Energy storage in an EDLC is due to the charging of the electrical double layer at the electrode–electrolyte interface; however, a redox supercapacitor uses faradic reactions in addition to the double‐layer charge 1–4. The main materials used for supercapacitor electrode preparation include carbon materials, such as activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, and activated carbon fibers,5–8 and electroactive materials with several redox states or structures, such as transition‐metal oxides (e.g., oxides of ruthenium, nickel, cobalt, indium, tin, and manganese)9–12 and conducting polymers 13–16…”