posted on 2021-07-02, 12:33authored byWeiyan Sun, Chunping Li, Jie Bai, Lei Xing
It
is crucial to balance the energy supply and demand of wearable
and mobile electrical devices for their widespread applications. Supercapacitors
have attracted increasing attentions in this field due to their unique
advantages. This work studied the preparation of highly graphitized
WO3–CNFs as promising flexible electrode materials
for fiber-shaped supercapacitors. Tungsten oxide, a prospective energy
storage material owing to its n-type semiconductor property, was integrated
with carbon nanofibers (CNFs) to synthesize nanostructured WO3–CNFs through a combined electrospinning and hydrothermal
method. A variety of amounts of ammonium metatungst (AMT) were screened
and WO3-RCNFs8 (8 mg AMT in 20 mL water) was proven to
deliver the maximum specific capacitance (381.40 F g–1 at 0.5 A g–1), capacitance retention (up to 111.87%
after 5000 cycles), and high-rate capability (58.68% retention in
specific capacitance at 20 versus 0.3 A g–1). A
symmetric flexible solid-state supercapacitor (SFS) device was assembled
using the as-prepared WO3–CNFs8 as electrode materials.
The maximum energy density of 4.28 Wh kg–1 with
a power density of 3356.90 W kg–1 was achieved.
The superior electrochemical performances can be explained by the
synergistic effect of the n-type semiconductor property of WO3 and the excellent charge transfer ability of CNFs, which
could attract more charges into the electrode throughout charging
state and release them rapidly during the discharging state. The n-type
semiconductor enhanced the electrochemical behavior of CNFs and played
a vital role in achieving high specific capacitance. The new procedure
of preparing flexible electrode materials with enhanced charge storage/release
capacity was investigated, which is chiefly essential for superior-performance
energy storage devices.