Supercapacitors are a complementary
energy storage technology to
batteries and will be important for next-generation applications such
as wearable sensors, soft robotics, roll-up displays, and electric
vehicles. Here, we report a flexible supercapacitor with an all solid-state,
single-ion-conducting polymer network electrolyte. The electrodes
are comprised of reduced graphene oxide held together with a neutral
polymer network to stabilize the dispersion and lend flexibility to
the overall supercapacitor. Due to the high thermal and electrochemical
stability of the network polymerized ionic liquid electrolyte, the
resulting device can be charged to high voltages (3 V) and operated
at high temperatures (120 °C) with excellent cycling stability.
A 300 F/g specific capacitance is achieved by charging the device
at 0.57 A/g and 90 °C or at 1.8 A/g and 120 °C. Due to the
flexible network, the device can bend up to 180° without a substantial
change in capacitance. The electrode/electrolyte interface, network
architecture, and single-ion-conducting nature of the electrolyte
are shown to be critical for high capacitance through a series of
control experiments with ionic liquid supercapacitors.