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Carbon nanotube cloth as a promising electrode material for flexible aqueous supercapacitors

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Abstract

Electrochemical cyclic recharging of a binder-free flexible carbon material in respect to supercapacitor applications is reported. To provide high enough and stable pseudocapacitance, the surface of carbon nanotube cloth (CNTC) was exposed to dry oxidative functionalization by annealing in air at 460 °C. We report the effect of annealing time (0.5–3 h) on capacitance, electrical resistivity and specific surface area. CNTC annealed for 1 h demonstrated the best results: the capacitance of ca. 42 F g−1 in 0.5 M H2SO4 (slightly decreasing with a scan rate up to 1000 mV s−1) and specific resistivity of 20 µΩ m. For CNTC demonstrating these characteristics, the specific surface area was 342 m2 g−1, comprising almost from mesopores. Capacitance retention of 99.1% during 30,000 recharging cycles was observed. Finally, a flexible symmetric supercapacitor operating at 1 V was assembled from the freestanding (unsupported) CNTC electrodes to test their performance in a device prototype. Coulombic efficiency was close to 100% at high enough current densities. Our observations allow to consider air-oxidized CNTC as a promising electrode material for flexible supercapacitors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank The Ministry of Science and Education of Russian Federation for supporting TISNCM in terms of a state assignment. Alexey V. Panferov and Ivan A. Evdokimov are gratefully acknowledged for the BET characterization of CNTC-[x]h (x = 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3) samples and ultimate tensile strength measurements of the CNTC-1h sample, respectively. The authors also thank Kirill O. Gryaznov and Aida R. Karaeva for fruitful discussions and help with a number of experiments. The work was performed using the Shared Research Facilities ‘Research of Nanostructured, Carbon and Superhard Materials’ FSBI TISNCM. GTs completed this work in frames of the state target No АААА-А21-121011590088-4.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials, 7A Tsentralnaya Street, Troitsk, Moscow, Russia, 108840

    Ivan S. Filimonenkov, Sergey A. Urvanov, Nikita V. Kazennov, Sergey A. Tarelkin & Vladimir Z. Mordkovich

  2. INFRA Technology Ltd., 11-3B Mokhovaya Street, Moscow, Russia, 125009

    Ivan S. Filimonenkov

  3. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 9 Institutskiy per., Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia, 141701

    Sergey A. Tarelkin

  4. Department of Electrochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University, 1 − str. 3 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Galina A. Tsirlina

  5. Department of Chemical Technology and New Materials, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University, 1 − str. 3 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Vladimir Z. Mordkovich

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  1. Ivan S. Filimonenkov
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  2. Sergey A. Urvanov
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Filimonenkov, I.S., Urvanov, S.A., Kazennov, N.V. et al. Carbon nanotube cloth as a promising electrode material for flexible aqueous supercapacitors. J Appl Electrochem 52, 487–498 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-021-01652-z

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