A facile approach to prepare a flexible sandwich-structured supercapacitor with rGO-coated cotton fabric as electrodes

Abstract

In recent years, the energy supply problem of wearable electronic equipment has become a topic of increasing concern. It is necessary to develop energy storage equipment with environmental protection, flexibility, a light quality and excellent performance. In this work, a solid, flexible and symmetrical supercapacitor based on graphene coated cotton fabric was fabricated. The flexible electrode materials were prepared through an environmentally friendly “dry-coating” method and subsequent “two step reduction” method of chemical and microwave reduction, the method is simple and convenient. The morphology and structure of prepared flexible electrode materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectrometry. The supercapacitor was assembled in a sandwich structure and packaged and its electrochemical performance was investigated. The flexible sandwich structure (FSS) supercapacitor exhibits high capacitance (464 F g⁻¹ at 0.25 A g⁻¹), good cycling stability (91.6% capacitance retention after 1000 charge and discharge cycles) and excellent electrochemical stability. This supercapacitor with easy fabrication, flexible and excellent electrochemical performance has potential to be used as a wearable device.