Facile Preparation of High-Performance Stretchable Fiber-Like Electrodes and Supercapacitors

© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim A facile preparation method was proposed to fabricate core-sheath structured elastic cord/carbon nanotube (CNT)/polyaniline (PANI) composite fibers with excellent electrochemical performance and good mechanical stretchability. Specifically, we developed a “surface melting for stable attachment” strategy to combine CNT/PANI composite film tightly with elastic cord fiber. The fabricated fiber-like elastic cord/CNT/PANI composite electrode displays a large gravimetric capacitance of 394 F g−1(corresponds to a linear specific capacitance of 15.4 mF cm−1) and superior rate capability. The electrode capacitance has no obvious decrease when the electrode was stretched from original state to a large stretch ratio of 100%, and the capacitance maintains 98% after 100 stretch-release cycles; besides, the electrode at stretching state possesses almost same cycling stability and rate capability as it at original state. These results indicate robust micro-structure and outstanding stretchability of our fiber-like elastic cord/CNT/PANI composite electrode. Consequently, all-solid-state supercapacitors assembled based on the fiber-like electrode also exhibit impressive stretchability. Overall, the proposed facile method for producing stretchable fiber-like electrodes/supercapacitors is believed to further boost the practical application of stretchable and wearable energy storage devices