Communications of the ACM
Stretchable Energy Sources
A supercapacitor developed by Tsu-Wei Chou may be integrated with "wearable, miniaturized, and portable electronic devices," Chou says.
Credit: University of Delaware
University of Delaware researchers have developed a compact, stretchable wire-shaped supercapacitor (WSS) based on continuous carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers. To fabricate the WSS, professors Tsu-Wei Chou and Bingqing Wei employed a prestraining-then-buckling approach, using a Spandex fiber as the substrate, a polyvinyl alcohol-sulfuric acid gel as the solid electrolyte, and CNT fibers as the active electrodes. The team subjected the CNT supercapacitor to a tensile strain of 100 percent over 10,000 charge/discharge cycles, and its electrochemical performance improved to 108 percent.
Wei credits the supercapacitor's performance to the intrinsic mechanical and physical properties of the flexible CNT fibers.
Large deformations did not sacrifice the mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and electrochemical properties of the fibers. "This unique combination of outstanding electrochemical performance and stretchability may enable the integration of wire-shaped supercapacitors with wearable, miniaturized, and portable electronic devices," Chou says.
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