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Facile synthesis of flexible electrode based on cotton/polypyrrole/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite for supercapacitors

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Abstract

Flexible electrodes made of cotton textile, polypyrrole (PPy) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) composites were synthesized via a facile in situ chemical deposition method. This method involves a series of successive steps by immersing the cotton fabric in various MWCNT suspensions; adding monomers and p-toluene sulfonic acid (TsOH) as dopant under ultrasonic condition; and then initiating the polymerization by drop-in the oxidant. The fabricated electrodes exhibited a specific capacitance of 597 F g−1 with good cycle stability (maintaining 96.8% after 1000 cycles). Symmetric all-solid-state supercapacitors based on cotton/PPy/MWCNT electrodes and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/H3PO4 gel electrolytes were fabricated and tested. The electrochemical measurements showed that assembled supercapacitors had a specific capacitance of 206.8 F g−1 at a current density of 1 mA cm−2. The supercapacitors were flexible enough to bend and twist with constant capacitance performance and exhibit 72% capacitance retention after 400 charge–discharge cycles.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51303022) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2232015D3-17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Yang Bo, Yaping Zhao & Caihong Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Science and Technology of Eco-Textile, Donghua University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Yaping Zhao & Zaisheng Cai

  3. Department of Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Addie Bahi & Frank Ko

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  1. Yang Bo
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  2. Yaping Zhao
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  3. Zaisheng Cai
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  5. Caihong Liu
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Correspondence to Yaping Zhao.

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Bo, Y., Zhao, Y., Cai, Z. et al. Facile synthesis of flexible electrode based on cotton/polypyrrole/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite for supercapacitors. Cellulose 25, 4079–4091 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1845-9

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