Themed collection Flexible energy storage and conversion

Guest editors Guozhen Shen, Shu-Hong Yu, Yongyao Xia, and Xiong Wen (David) Lou introduce this Journal of Materials Chemistry A themed issue on flexible energy storage and conversion.

The progress in the development of materials, processes, devices and industrialization of flexible dye solar cells is analyzed in this review.

The working principle of semiconductor:insulator blends are discussed, examining the different approaches that have recently been reported in literature.

This review summarizes the advances and challenges in materials and process technologies in flexible rechargeable lithium ion batteries research.

Recent progress of energy storage systems based on neutral aqueous electrolytes provides some quite green chemistries with promising applications in electric vehicles and smart grids.

Flexible supercapacitors based on carbon nanomaterials are currently of intense interest for use in portable, light-weight, and wearable electronics.

Research on textile energy storage is making serious headway towards commercial applications to power wearable electronics.

Symmetric binder-free flexible supercapacitor devices with a sandwich configuration are fabricated by using ordered 3D graphene.

We demonstrate the good performance of TiN nanowires as anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

This manuscript systematically studied impacting factors in Li–S cells and proposed a new explanation of the shuttle-inhibiting mechanism of LiNO₃ additive.

ZnO nanorods are passivated with p-type CuSCN, which improves the peak power density of the piezoelectric nanogenerators by 10 times.

The porosity of activated ZIF-templated carbons (AZTCs) is readily modulated by compaction to increase microporosity and packing density, which results in improved hydrogen storage of 6.5 wt% and 42.3 g l⁻¹ at −196 °C and 20 bar.

Nanoporous gold dramatically enhances specific capacitances of PPy and MnO₂, resulting in ultrahigh energy density and power density of the PPy–NPG//MnO₂–NPG asymmetric supercapacitor with a wide potential window.

Large area multi-stacked lithium-ion battery modules are developed for flexible and rollable applications by employing conductive textiles.

A CoNiO₂ nanowire/TiN–TiO_xN_y thin-film nanocomposite is directly grown on Ni foam for a high-rate charging supercapacitor and self-powered non-enzymatic glucose detection.

Fast room-temperature reduction of GO films on PET for flexible transparent conductive films.

We demonstrate the design and fabrication of a Ag/PEDOT:PSS/MnO₂ layer by layer structure for high performance flexible supercapacitors.

A simple strategy was developed to grow NiO nanosheets on carbon cloth as a binder-free electrode for a high-performance flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor device.

Graphene/porous carbon aerogels were rationally designed by a simple green process, exhibiting excellent electrochemical performance and long-term cycle stability as the electrode materials in flexible all-solid-state supercapacitors.

Electropolymerized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on a flexible PEDOT:PSS substrate was used as a low-cost and flexible counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells.

A new class of shape-deformable and thermally stable solid-state electrolyte based on a plastic crystal composite polymer electrolyte for flexible/safer lithium-ion batteries is demonstrated.

A graphene-attached VS₄ composite prepared by a simple hydrothermal method is studied in terms of its lithium reaction mechanism and high rate capability.

A flexible composite electrode as a cathode for lithium batteries is produced by compositing a three-dimensional graphene network and vertically aligned polyimide nanoflakes.

Growth of NiFe₂O₄ nanoparticles on carbon cloth can be realized by a facile hydrothermal process, resulting in the formation of carbon cloth/NiFe₂O₄ composites with promising applications in the fabrication of high performance flexible supercapacitors.

A simple method for producing patterned Ag electrodes on transparent and flexible substrates is reported.

Microscopic analysis reveals the dual-site occupancy character of Ga in skutterudites which results in abnormal electrical properties.

A novel flexible supercapacitor based on two-dimensional V₂O₅·H₂O/graphene nanocomposites was fabricated and exhibited high electrochemical performance.

A flexible sulfur cathode electrode based on interlinked carbon nanotubes/carbon nanocages with superior conductivity and high mechanical strength was fabricated, which presented an high capacity of 1354 mAh g⁻¹ and exhibited a high electrochemical rate capability.

This work reports a flexible supercapacitor based on vanadium oxide–polyaniline composites (VP-1) with a large potential window and high energy density.

Combination of metal oxides and carbon has been a favourable practice for their applications in high-rate energy storage mesoscopic electrodes.