Bio-inspired multicomponent carbon nanotube microfibers from microfluidics for supercapacitor

Abstract

Fiber-shaped supercapacitors are considered to be one of the most promising power source candidates in flexible electronics for their light weight, high flexibility and wearability. Here, inspired by natural silkworms spinning and their hierarchical fiber structure, we present a multi-channel co-flow microfluidic strategy for one-step spinning of multicomponent carbon nanotubes (CNTs) microfiber supercapacitors. By injecting polyurethane (PU) and CNTs dispersed solutions into the microfluidic channels respectively, microfibers with single or double CNTs cores and PU shells could be continuously generated. These microfibers were also with highly tailorable structures, shapes and sizes of their encapsulated multicomponent CNTs cores through varying parameters such as microfluidic chip designs, flow rates and channel sizes. We have demonstrated that the resultant CNTs microfibers showed good flexibility, stability and cycle life performance for energy storage capacity through various electrochemical tests. Meanwhile, the practical application of CNTs microfibers in powering LED lights has also been successfully studied. Thus, we believe that these fiber-shaped CNT supercapacitors would reveal important utility in electronic applications which requiring flexible electronic systems.