A flexible supercapacitor with high energy density and wide range of temperature tolerance using a high-concentration aqueous gel electrolyte

Abstract

As the demand for a wide range of wearable devices increases, extensive effort is devoted to developing high-performance flexible energy storage devices such as batteries and supercapacitors. Of particular interest, flexible supercapacitors using aqueous electrolytes have high application potential owing to their many advantages including low cost, harmlessness to the human, and environmental safety compared to others using electrolytes such as ionic liquids and organic electrolytes. However, poor temperature tolerance and narrow operation voltage window have hindered the practical application of aqueous supercapacitors. In this study, we report on a wide temperature-tolerant flexible aqueous supercapacitor featuring high electrochemical performance designed by a deliberate selection of electrode materials and electrolytes. As a flexible electrode, three-dimensional microporous graphene foam coated with conducting polymer Polypyrrole (PPy) is used to enhance capacitance up -to 90.0 F/g by increasing the surface area and inducing the pseudo-capacitance of PPy. As a gel-type electrolyte, a high-concentration NaClO4 is mixed with Polyvinyl alcohol to enlarge the voltage window to 1.8 V and a stable temperature range from -25 to 80°C, even under repetitive bending deformation. The fabricated supercapacitor exhibits a superior energy density of 37.4 Wh kg−1 and maintains 92.0% of initial capacitance at room temperature after three repeated cycles of cooling/heating across a wide temperature range over 100°C. This work suggests a high potential application of the fabricated supercapacitor as an eco-friendly and stable energy storage system for powering diverse wearable devices under various conditions.