A flexible Zinc-ion hybrid supercapacitor constructed by porous carbon with controllable structure

Abstract

The demand for developing sustainable energy storage renders biomass-based electrode materials a timely and important goal. However, the desirable electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor has still been hindered by insufficient contact chance between the active material and the electrolyte when both energy density and power density are required. Herein, the porous bamboo carbons were managed and used as the cathode to construct a flexible and high-performance Zn-ion hybrid supercapacitor (ZHSC) by combining the merit of capacitor-type and battery-type electrode materials. The porous material with high porosity is obtained via a controllable structural optimization. Consequently, the as-constructed hybrid supercapacitor delivers a superior specific capacitance of 321.3F g−1 at 1 A g−1 together with a high energy density of 114.2 Wh kg−1 when the power density is 800.0 W kg−1. Meanwhile, the assembled flexible hybrid supercapacitor displays remarkable cycling stability with 78% capacitance retention after 20,000 cycles and enough to suffer various deformations with no noticeable degradation of capacitance. Finally, the potential practical value of the flexible hybrid supercapacitor is demonstrated by an eye-catching orbital diagram. This work reveals that the flexible supercapacitor mainly constructed by porous biomass carbon is a promising candidate for energy storage devices.