01/05/2010 | Liangbing Hu, Mauro Pasta, Fabio La Mantia, LiFeng Cui, Sangmoo Jeong, Heather Dawn Deshazer, Jang Wook Choi, Seung Min Han, and Yi Cui
This study presents a novel approach to creating stretchable, porous, and conductive energy textiles using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The researchers developed a simple "dipping and drying" process to coat textiles with SWNT ink, resulting in highly conductive textiles with a conductivity of 125 S/cm and a sheet resistance less than 1 Ω/sq. These textiles exhibit excellent flexibility, stretchability, and strong adhesion between SWNTs and the textile fibers. Supercapacitors made from these conductive textiles show high areal capacitance (up to 0.48 F/cm²) and high specific energy. By loading pseudocapacitor materials into these textiles, the areal capacitance increased by 24-fold.
The conductive textiles are fabricated by dipping textile fibers into an aqueous SWNT ink and drying them in an oven. The resulting textiles have a 3D porous structure, which allows for high mass loading of materials, enhancing the performance of energy storage devices. The textiles are highly conductive, with excellent mechanical and chemical resistance. They can be used as electrodes and separators in fully stretchable supercapacitors, demonstrating outstanding mechanical properties, including strong adhesion between SWNTs and textiles, foldability, and stretchability.
The conductive textiles are also resistant to water washing, thermal treatment, and various acids and bases. They show excellent cycling stability, with only a 2% variation in capacitance over 130,000 cycles. The study also demonstrates the use of stretchable fabric sheets as both electrode substrates and separators, enabling the fabrication of fully stretchable supercapacitors. The specific capacitance of these stretchable supercapacitors is 62 F/g at 1 mA/cm².
The researchers further increased the specific energy of SWNT supercapacitors by incorporating pseudocapacitor materials such as MnO₂, RuO₂, or conducting polymers. These materials were uniformly electrodeposited on the SWNTs, significantly increasing the mass loading of the pseudocapacitor while maintaining good electrical contact. The areal capacitance of the device increased by a factor of 24 after MnO₂ deposition, and the specific capacitance increased by a factor of 4. The study highlights the potential of these conductive textiles for wearable electronics and energy storage applications, with the ability to provide new design opportunities for flexible and stretchable devices.This study presents a novel approach to creating stretchable, porous, and conductive energy textiles using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The researchers developed a simple "dipping and drying" process to coat textiles with SWNT ink, resulting in highly conductive textiles with a conductivity of 125 S/cm and a sheet resistance less than 1 Ω/sq. These textiles exhibit excellent flexibility, stretchability, and strong adhesion between SWNTs and the textile fibers. Supercapacitors made from these conductive textiles show high areal capacitance (up to 0.48 F/cm²) and high specific energy. By loading pseudocapacitor materials into these textiles, the areal capacitance increased by 24-fold.
The conductive textiles are fabricated by dipping textile fibers into an aqueous SWNT ink and drying them in an oven. The resulting textiles have a 3D porous structure, which allows for high mass loading of materials, enhancing the performance of energy storage devices. The textiles are highly conductive, with excellent mechanical and chemical resistance. They can be used as electrodes and separators in fully stretchable supercapacitors, demonstrating outstanding mechanical properties, including strong adhesion between SWNTs and textiles, foldability, and stretchability.
The conductive textiles are also resistant to water washing, thermal treatment, and various acids and bases. They show excellent cycling stability, with only a 2% variation in capacitance over 130,000 cycles. The study also demonstrates the use of stretchable fabric sheets as both electrode substrates and separators, enabling the fabrication of fully stretchable supercapacitors. The specific capacitance of these stretchable supercapacitors is 62 F/g at 1 mA/cm².
The researchers further increased the specific energy of SWNT supercapacitors by incorporating pseudocapacitor materials such as MnO₂, RuO₂, or conducting polymers. These materials were uniformly electrodeposited on the SWNTs, significantly increasing the mass loading of the pseudocapacitor while maintaining good electrical contact. The areal capacitance of the device increased by a factor of 24 after MnO₂ deposition, and the specific capacitance increased by a factor of 4. The study highlights the potential of these conductive textiles for wearable electronics and energy storage applications, with the ability to provide new design opportunities for flexible and stretchable devices.