Regenerated silk protein based hybrid film electrode with large area specific capacitance, high flexibility and light weight towards high-performance wearable energy storage

Abstract

Planar wearable supercapacitors (PWSCs) have sparked intense interest owing to their hopeful application in smart electronics. However, current PWSCs suffered from poor electrochemical property, weak flexibility and/or large weight. To relieve these defects, in this study, we fabricated a high-performance PWSC using silk protein derived film electrodes (PPy/RSF/MWCNTs-2; RSF, PPy and MWCNTs represent regenerated silk film, polypyrrole and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, respectively, while 2 is the mass ratio of silk to MWCNTs), which were developed by ‘dissolving-mixing-evaporating’ and in situ polymerization. In three-electrode, PPy/RSF/MWCNTs-2 showed a superb area specific capacitance of 8704.7 mF cm−2 at 5 mA cm−2, which surpassed numerous reported PWSC electrodes, and had a decent durability with a capacitance retention of 90.7 % after 5000 cycles. The PPy/RSF/MWCNTs-2 derived PWSC showed a largest energy density of 281.3 μWh cm−2 at 1660.1 μW cm−2, and a power density as high as 13636.4 μW cm−2 at 125.6 μWh cm−2. Furthermore, impressive capacitive-mechanical stability with a capacitance retention of 92 % under bending angles from 0 to 150 was depicted. Thanks to the rational and affordable preparation, our study for the first time prepared RSF electrode that had great capacitive property, high mechanical flexibility and light weight, simultaneously. The encouraging results can not only open up a new path to manufacture high-performance flexible electrodes, but may also help to realize the high-value-added utilization of silk.