Tooth-derived flexible supercapacitor

Abstract

The huge number of livestock produce countless animal-derived teeth, which always end up in the environment without any scientific intervention, leading to a vast waste. Herein, tooth-derived supercapacitor was fabricated for the first time. The demineralized tooth with 3D collagen matrix were applied as flexible gel electrolyte, while calcination of the demineralized tooth led to porous carbon as electrode. The preserved aligned tubular hierarchy typically promoted the ion transport in the gel electrolyte, and the multi-scaled porous structure favored the ion adsorption on the electrodes. The tooth-derived supercapacitor thus demonstrated excellent performance among the top class of the reported supercapacitors, with high specific capacitance of 131.7 mF/cm2, capacitance retention of 84.6% after 6000 charging-discharging cycles and capacitance retention of 90.1% after 600 times bending. The present work opens a novel approach for the interdisciplinary and sustainable utilization of animal-derived teeth in the field of energy storage.