Issue 42/2015 - Solid flexible supercapacitor successfully prepared

Recently, researchers from the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have prepared a new type of solid-state flexible supercapacitor
with high area specific capacitance, excellent charge-discharge cycle performance and flexible performance.
This new flexible supercapacitor is expected to be used in
power-based energy storage devices for next-generation wearable electronic devices.

The researchers prepared a conductive polyaniline hydrogel electrode material based on conductive polyaniline, and showed excellent capacitance and charge-discharge rate performance
.
Then, they integrated the key component of the flexible supercapacitor, the electrode-electrolyte-electrode layer, into a film made of the flexible hydrogel material to form an integrated new device structure
.
Compared with the traditional device structure of the current multilayer film stacking, this structure is conducive to the diffusion of gel electrolyte ions inside the thicker electrode layer and the improvement
of mechanical bending resistance.

In the specific preparation process, the researchers used the method of chemical crosslinking-casting film to prepare the supported chemical hydrogel film, and deposited the conductive polymer on the upper and lower surfaces and the near surface of the hydrogel through chemical in situ polymerization reaction to form a composite hydrogel film
.
The film has an arrangement of conductive polymer layer-hydrogel layer-conductive polymer layer inside, which can form an integrated solid-state flexible supercapacitor
.
The new structural solid flexible supercapacitor has a very outstanding area specific capacity and excellent charge-discharge cycle stability, continuously bending thousands of times, and its capacitance performance has no attenuation
.
(yuan)