“Graphene Bubble Bridging” Enabled Flexible Multifunctional Carbon Fiber Membrane Toward K+ Storage Devices

Abstract

AbstractWidespread integration of carbon‐based membranes into prevailing fields like energy storage and material engineering is thwarted by a lack of functionality, customization, and compatibility, making the development of such carbon‐based membranes urgency yet challenging. Herein, a “graphene bubble bridging” strategy is adopted to fabricate the multifunctional carbon fiber membrane, in which graphene bubbles with optimized assembling not only endow the carbon fiber with superior flexibility and integrity by embedded bridging function, but also enhance the fast electron transport capability and electrolyte wettability. Few‐layer MoSSe nanosheets with expanded interlayer spacing as a typical energy storage material contribute to plentiful ion intercalation/deintercalation that can be well buffered within the robust fibers. The interlaced carbon fibers enable a self‐supporting framework that ensures good conductivity and mechanical stability as well. Such functional, customized, and compatible membranes with synergies can boost the attributes of advanced K+ storage devices, such as flexible K‐ion capacitors and K‐based dual‐ion batteries. This work can afford new insights for designing flexible electrode in the energy storage field, as well as various types of conformations that can bring more opportunities on developing flexible functional membranes for other fields (e.g., catalysts, electromagnetic shielding).