Flexible supercapacitor with a record high areal specific capacitance based on a tuned porous fabric

Abstract

To meet the rapidly growing demand for wearable electronics, much research has been devoted to developing flexible supercapacitors. Now, we are awash with abundant examples, but there remain challenges associated with obtaining a high loading of active material for high areal specific capacitance. Herein, a tuned porous fabric has been designed as the substrate to incorporate active materials with a high loading capability. A conducting polymer of polypyrrole with a high mass loading of 12.3 mg cm⁻² was developed, and a record high areal specific capacitance of 4117 mF cm⁻² has been achieved in the resulting supercapacitor. The supercapacitor is also flexible, and it maintains a high electrochemical performance under bending and twisting for 500 cycles.