A bamboo-inspired nanostructure design for flexible foldable and twistable energy storage devices

Journal Article · Tue May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b00738· OSTI ID:1185032

Sun, Yongming ^[1]; Sills, Ryan B ^[2]; Hu, Xianluo ^[3]; Wei Seh, Zhi ^[4]; Xiao, Xu ^[3]; Xu, Henghui ^[3]; Luo, Wei ^[3]; Jin, Huanyu ^[3]; Xin, Ying ^[5]; Li, Tianqi ^[3]; Zhang, Zhaoliang ^[5]; Zhou, Jun ^[3]; Cai, Wei ^[4]; Huang, Yunhui ^[3]; Cui, Yi ^[6]

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1. Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
3. Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China)
4. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
5. Univ. of Jinan, Jinan (China)
6. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Flexible energy storage devices are critical components for emerging flexible electronics. Electrode design is key in the development of all-solid-state supercapacitors with superior electrochemical performances and mechanical durability. We propose a bamboo-like graphitic carbon nanofiber with a well-balanced macro-, meso-, and microporosity, enabling excellent mechanical flexibility, foldability, and electrochemical performances. Our design is inspired by the structure of bamboos, where a periodic distribution of interior holes along the length and graded pore structure at the cross section not only enhance their stability under different mechanical deformation conditions but also provide a high surface area accessible to the electrolyte and low ion-transport resistance. The prepared nanofiber network electrode recovers its initial state easily after 3-folded manipulation. The mechanically robust membrane is explored as a free-standing electrode for a flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor. Without the need for extra support, the volumetric energy and power densities based on the whole device are greatly improved compared to the state-of-the-art devices. Furthermore, even under continuous dynamic operations of forceful bending (90°) and twisting (180°), the as-designed device still exhibits stable electrochemical performances with 100% capacitance retention. As a result, such a unique supercapacitor holds great promise for high-performance flexible electronics.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1185032
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1261675
• Report Number(s): SAND--2014-20710J; 553941
• Journal Information: Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 15; ISSN 1530-6984
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
bamboo-like carbon nanofibers
electrochemical performances
mechanical properties
supercapacitor