posted on 2023-12-05, 18:04authored byLin Jin, Xinyue Liu, Zhao Wang, Jiajun Luo, Longzhi Zheng, Mengjie Zhang, Yuhui Ao
To explore next-generation flexible supercapacitors,
lightweight,
superior conductivity, low cost, and excellent capacitance are the
preconditions for practical use. However, subjected to unsatisfactory
conductivity, limited surface areas, and poor porosity leading to
long ion transport channels, carbon fiber (CF)-based flexible supercapacitors
need to further boost the electrochemical properties. Hence, a porous
reduced graphene oxide encapsulated Cu(OH)2 core–shell
structured CF-based electrode was fabricated through a scalable approach.
The inexpensive Cu(OH)2 nanoarrays were controllably grown
in situ on a CF substrate, with residual Cu promoting conductivity.
Porous graphene oxide (PrGO), which served as the shell, was realized
by Ni nanoparticle etching, which not only provided more active sites
for capacitance as well as shortened accessible pathways for the ion
transport but also effectively alleviated the exfoliation of the internal
active materials. Moreover, thanks to this distinctive core–shell
architecture, the extra space between the outer PrGO layer and the
internal ordered Cu(OH)2 nanoarrays provided increased
space for capacitance storage. The assembled PrGO/Cu(OH)2/Cu@CF electrode exhibited an excellent areal capacitance, reaching
up to 722 mF cm–2 at a current density of 0.5 mA
cm–2, attributed to its superior structure and materials
advantages. The resulting PrGO/Cu(OH)2/Cu@CF//AC//CF asymmetric
flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor achieved a high energy density
of 0.052 mWh cm–2 and exhibited long-term durability.
This work proposes a low-cost and effective way to fabricate hierarchically
structured electrodes for wearable CF-based supercapacitors.