Issue 3, 2024

Ultrathin redox active hydrogel electrolytes for high performance flexible supercapacitors

Abstract

Flexible supercapacitors (FSCs) based on hydrogel electrolytes have the advantages of high ionic conductivity, no liquid leakage, flexibility and versatility, making them the most promising power sources for wearable devices. Herein, a flexible and stretchable, ultrathin polyvinyl alcohol/carboxymethyl chitosan incorporated with a redox active ionic liquid (PVA/CMCS-[ViEtIm][Br]) hydrogel electrolyte is prepared by a facile coating and freezing/thawing method, which is used to improve the practical performance of supercapacitors. The PVA/CMCS-[ViEtIm][Br] hydrogel film has good mechanical properties. More importantly, the redox reaction caused by [ViEtIm][Br] in the hydrogel electrolyte provides a crucial pseudocapacitive contribution to supercapacitors. Thus, the flexible supercapacitor assembled with the PVA/CMCS-[ViEtIm][Br] hydrogel at a thickness of 0.1 mm has an areal specific capacitance of 314.4 mF cm−2 and an energy density of 78.6 μWh cm−2 at 540 μW cm−2, with a capacitance retention of 87.5% after 10 000 charge/discharge cycles. Moreover, the flexible supercapacitor can also exhibit stable performance at different bending angles. This work provides a simple and feasible method for realizing ultra-thin flexible capacitors with high energy density.

Graphical abstract: Ultrathin redox active hydrogel electrolytes for high performance flexible supercapacitors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Jan 2024
Accepted
06 Mar 2024
First published
07 Mar 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024,2, 483-489

Ultrathin redox active hydrogel electrolytes for high performance flexible supercapacitors

M. Xun, X. Shi, H. Wang, X. Li, W. Miao, X. Wang, K. Sun, H. Peng, G. Ma and Y. Xu, RSC Appl. Polym., 2024, 2, 483 DOI: 10.1039/D4LP00007B

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