A study of flexible, solid-state fiber supercapacitors for future energy storage

With increasing demand for flexible and wearable electronic devices, flexible energy storage devices have received considerable attention for their application in this emerging field. Recently, many efforts have been dedicated to develop flexible solid-state supercapacitors because of their high power density, long cycle life and high safety. The two typical flexible supercapacitors are flexible planar supercapacitors and fiber supercapacitors. Compared with the planar supercapacitors, fiber supercapacitors which are weavable exhibit promising applications in flexible and wearable electronic devices. In this work, solid-state, coaxial fiber supercapacitors using Chinese ink as active materials were designed, manufactured and characterized. This kind of fiber supercapacitors show a good flexibility and weavability, and the energy storage performance of the fiber supercapacitors can be improved by mixing the Chinese ink with the ball-milled carbon. These kinds of flexible energy storage fibers can be woven into other fabrics to make smart textile materials for a desired use.