Application of long fibrous coconut silk-based porous carbon in flexible supercapacitor

Abstract

All-solid-state flexible supercapacitors are considered to be one of the ideal candidates for energy storage in the next generation of wearable electronic devices due to their high capacitance performance and excellent mechanical flexibility. Biomass-based carbon materials are regarded as the ideal precursors for carbon-based electrode materials due to their wide sources, low cost, natural and abundant biological features. In this work, long-fiber coconut silk with vascular bundle structure was selected as the precursor, the controllable adjustment of the pore structure and conductive characteristics of the electrode material was achieved by changing the KOH activation temperature. The specific surface area of the activated carbon electrode material etched with KOH at 900 °C can reach 2794 m2·g−1. The high specific surface area and reasonable pore size distribution provide abundant active sites for the adsorption of electrolyte ions, which leads to the excellent electrode specific capacitance (2 mV·s−1，634 F·g−1，10.73 Wh·kg−1) of the symmetric flexible supercapacitor combined with PVA (polyvinyl alcohol)/H2SO4 gel electrolyte. At the same time, the long-fiber carbon skeleton has intrinsically high Young's modulus, which enables the flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor to maintain better electrochemical stability and mechanical durability under mechanical deformation, and it's retention rate can reach 101.5 % after 10,000 bending experiments at an inner angle of 140°. It proves the great advantages and potential of coconut silk-based biomass carbon materials in the field of preparing flexible supercapacitors, and promotes the development of energy storage units for next-generation wearable electronic devices.