Enhancement of capacitance of waterproof supercapacitors by controlling the thickness of their composite electrodes (graphene/ La0.2Gd1.8Zr2O7: La0.7Sr0.3MnO3)

Abstract

We report the electrochemical performance of wrinkled/washable graphene-based supercapacitors (SCs). Sustainable graphene electrodes were fabricated by printing graphene microplates on recycled plastics (taken from wasted chip-packets), which provided flexibility to the SCs. The devices made with only graphene electrodes had an energy-density/specific-capacitance of 8.8 Wh kg−1/99.1 F g−1. To enhance the electrochemical properties of the SCs, a mixture of La0.2Gd1.8Zr2O7 (LGZ) and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSM) perovskites (redox materials) were added on their electrodes. After this, the energy-density/capacitance was enhanced to 53.1 Wh kg−1/596.90 F g−1, that is, an improvement of 503/502%, respectively. Subsequently, the solid state SCs were completely rolled or wrinkled, in consequence, the capacitance decreased by 12.1 and 35.6%, respectively. Even more, the SCs were immersed in water or subjected to washing/drying cycles using a washing-machine and the capacitance barely decreased by ⁓14.2%. Additionally, the thickness of the SC electrodes was varied in the range of 65–400 μm and obtained the maximum capacitance for a thickness of 330 μm. Overall, we demonstrated that incorporating the LGZ/LSM perovskite on the SC electrodes provided extra redox centers, which incremented the capacitance of the devices. The SCs reported here are waterproof and wrinkled, thus, they could provide energy to wearable devices.