Fabrication of vertically aligned CNT- vanadium oxide hybrid architecture with enhanced compressibility and supercapacitor performance

Abstract

Abstract The demand for energy storage devices in wearable electronics effectuates a requisition for compressible and flexible supercapacitors with high performance and mechanical reliability. We report the fabrication of vanadium oxide hybrid with VACNT and its electrochemical supercapacitor performance along with the compression response. Compressive modulus of 730 ± 40 kPa is obtained for bare VACNT forest whereas its hybrid with vanadium oxide shows a compressive modulus of 240 ± 60 kPa. Controlled CVD process enabled the formation of porous CNT architecture coated with vanadium oxide particles due to the simultaneous reduction of V2O5 and partial oxidation of CNT forest. Vanadium oxide decorated on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes acts as the active material for supercapacitor applications. A 17 folds increase in areal capacitance and 36 folds increase in volumetric capacitance are observed on depositing vanadium oxide particles on the VACNT forest. High coulombic efficiency of 97.8% is attained even after 10 000 charge-discharge cycles indicating the high stability of the hybrid.