Flexible solid-state supercapacitors based on a conducting polymer hydrogel with enhanced electrochemical performance

Abstract

In this paper, a conducting polyaniline hydrogel instead of traditional solid electrode materials is used as an electrode material to prepare high performance flexible solid-state supercapacitors. Conducting polymer hydrogels combine the properties of hydrogel with electrical conductivity, thus offering intrinsic porous conducting frameworks and promoting the transport of charges, ions, and molecules. According to our results, the capacitance of the polyaniline hydrogel electrode is quite remarkable (430 F g⁻¹) in this prototype, flexible solid-state supercapacitor with a two-electrode configuration. Furthermore, this supercapacitor shows excellent rate capability, cyclic stability and bendable performance. Moreover, this supercapacitor can drive a glow armlet to work very well, which demonstrates that the device has great potential to work as a power source in real-life applications.