Multicomponent architectured battery-type flexible yarns for high-performance wearable supercapatteries

Abstract

Rational design of light weight, flexible and wearable yarn-type electrodes with selectively designed battery-type materials has attracted a promising research interest for the development of high-performance miniatured energy storage devices. However, the relatively lower energy storage performance caused by poor mass loading of existing fiber/yarn-based devices limits their practical applicability in a wide range. Herein, an unique plaiting approach is demonstrated to design flexible and wearable yarn-type supercapatteries (YSCs) with high electrochemical performance. With ubiquitous polyester fabric fibers (PFs) in a plaiting form, PFs are converted into highly conductive plaited PFs via dual layered metallization with superior surface roughness. Upon deposition of carbon nanotubes and nickel cobalt double hydroxides on metallized PFs, an efficient battery-type electrode is designed, which exhibits a high specific capacity of 162.8 mAh g−1 with an excellent cycling stability of 93.3% in alkaline electrolyte. The two-electrode system-based solid-state YSCs are further assembled using multicomponent architectured battery-type and capacitive-type activated carbon electrodes, which enables a high potential of 1.55 V with superior energy and power densities (30.49 Wh kg−1 and 1137.26 W kg−1), respectively. By capitalizing high energy storage, the solar charging-based YSC is practically examined to be able to energize various wearable electronics.