Work

Synergies of polypyrrole and carbon nanotube on carbon fiber fabrics for improving electrochemical and mechanical properties of structural supercapacitor electrodes

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Structural supercapacitors (SSCs) are a promising solution for reducing the weight of structures. In order to improve the electrochemical performance of carbon fiber (CF) electrodes, a new technique for carbon fiber electrodes modified with polypyrrole (PPy) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with friendly preparation methods was developed. The mixture of PPy and CNT produced a significant synergistic effect in increasing the capacitance of the electrode. PPy/CF electrode was optimized by adjusting parameters. The areal capacitance of the CNT‐PPy/CF electrode achieves 1789.84 mF/cm2 at a scanning speed of 10 mV/s, which is 159 times higher compared with the CF electrode. Furthermore, the CNT‐PPy/CF electrode exhibits good electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and cycle stability. In terms of mechanical properties, the monofilament tensile strength of CNT‐PPy/CF is improved by 9.5% compared to CF after treatment at 550°C. In addition, the SSC was fabricated using two pieces of electrodes, the PEGDGE/EMIMTFSI/LiTFSI as the electrolyte and a piece of basalt fiber fabric as the separator. The capacitance of SSC with CNT‐PPy/CF as electrodes is 38 times higher than that with CF as electrodes, and the power density is 1.23 mW/cm−3 at the energy density of 18.36 μWh/cm−3. The results demonstrate the CNT‐PPy/CF electrode provides an excellent electrode for the high‐performance SSC. Highlights A novel modification method for CF electrodes was developed using CNTs and PPy. The synergistic effect of PPy and CNT is exhibited. CNT‐PPy/CF provides excellent electrodes for the high‐performance SSC. PPy synthesized with dopant NaSSA exhibits excellent electrochemical performance. CNT‐PPy/CF exhibits excellent electrochemical and mechanical performance.

Source: Polymer Composites

DOI: 10.1002/pc.29365

Authors: Siheng Zeng, Xin Wang, Zhishen Wu, Luqing Hua

Institution: Southeast University

Language: English

Topic: Supercapacitor Materials and Fabrication

Subfield: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Awards: G1153754002, G3495921320