Carbon coated textiles for flexible energy storage

Abstract

This paper describes a flexible and lightweight fabric supercapacitor electrode as a possible energy source in smart garments. We examined the electrochemical behavior of porous carbon materials impregnated into woven cotton and polyester fabrics using a traditional printmaking technique (screen printing). The porous structure of such fabrics makes them attractive for supercapacitor applications that need porous films for ion transfer between electrodes. We used cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to study the capacitive behaviour of carbon materials using nontoxic aqueous electrolytes including sodium sulfate and lithium sulfate. Electrodes coated with activated carbon (YP17) and tested at ∼0.25 A·g⁻¹ achieved a high gravimetric and areal capacitance, an average of 85 F·g⁻¹ on cotton lawn and polyester microfiber, both corresponding to ∼0.43 F·cm⁻².