High performance flexible carbon cloth-based solid-state supercapacitors with redox-mediated gel electrolytes

Abstract

The electrochemical performance of supercapacitors is mainly determined by both the electrodes and electrolytes. By integration of the flexible electrodes with redox-mediated gel electrolytes, high performance solid state supercapacitors were designed in the present work. The flexible carbon cloth (CC)-based electrodes were prepared by covalent immobilization of tetraaniline (TA) onto the oxidized carbon cloth (OCC). Hydroquinone (HQ) and p-phenylenediamine (PPD) were used as redox additive respectively to enhance the electrochemical property of the PVA-H2SO4 gel electrolyte. After optimization, high performance flexible solid-state symmetric supercapacitors (SSSCs) were obtained with specific capacitance of 834.0 mF/cm2, retention of 93.69% after 10,000 CV cycles and 108.5% after 500 cycles of 180°-bending, and energy density of 74.2 mWh/cm2 at power density of 405.3 mW/cm2. Such outstanding comprehensive performance makes them promising potential for practical application.