Issue 30, 2022, Issue in Progress

Effects of Cu2+/Zn2+ on the electrochemical performance of polyacrylamide hydrogels as advanced flexible electrode materials

Abstract

Previously, solid-state electrode materials have been utilized for the fabrication of energy storage devices; however, their application is impeded by their brittle nature and ion mobility problems. To address issues faced in such a modern era where energy saving and utility is of prior importance, a novel approach has been applied for the preparation of electrode materials based on polyacrylamide hydrogels embedded with reduced graphene oxide and transition metals, namely, Cu2+ and Zn2+. The fabricated hydrogel exhibits high electrical properties and flexibility that make it a favorable candidate to be used in energy storage devices, where both elastic and electrical properties are desired. For the first time, a multi-cross-linked polyacrylamide hydrogel was constructed and compared in the presence of other electro-active materials such as reduced graphene oxide and transition metals. Polyacrylamide hydrogels embedded with reduced graphene oxide demonstrate excellent electrical properties such as specific capacitance, least impedance, low phase angle shift and AC conductivity of 22.92 F g−1, 2115 Ω, 2.88° and 0.67 μδ m−1 respectively as compared to Cu2+- and Zn2+-loaded hydrogels, which block all available active sites causing an increase in impedance with a parallel decrease in capacitance. The capacitance retention and coulombic efficiency calculated were 88.22% and 77.23% respectively, indicating high stability up to 150 cycles at 0.1 A g−1. Storage moduli obtained were 10.52 kPa, which infers the more elastic nature of the hydrogel loaded with graphene oxide than that of other synthesized hydrogels.

Graphical abstract: Effects of Cu2+/Zn2+ on the electrochemical performance of polyacrylamide hydrogels as advanced flexible electrode materials

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Apr 2022
Accepted
23 May 2022
First published
30 Jun 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 19072-19085

Effects of Cu2+/Zn2+ on the electrochemical performance of polyacrylamide hydrogels as advanced flexible electrode materials

S. Faizan, L. A. Shah, Bakhtawara, D. Ye, F. Ahmad, M. Khan and M. Ismail, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 19072 DOI: 10.1039/D2RA02391A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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