Development of an all‐electrospun high‐performance textile supercapacitor for wearable device applications

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reports the synthesis and electrochemical performance of electrospun polyaniline (PANI) nanofiber membranes that work as high‐performance electrodes in an all‐textile supercapacitor (SC). The electrospun separator membrane consists of a mix of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and poly (ethylene sulfonate) (PES). The all‐textile SC consists of a PES‐PAN membrane, previously soaked in an electrolyte, stacked between two PANI fiber electrodes. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy are carried out to characterize the morphology and chemical structure of the PANI and PES‐PAN fiber membranes. Cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are carried out to characterize the electrochemical properties of the SCs. The all‐textile SC shows very competitive specific capacitances of 275 F/g at 0.25 A/g and a maximum specific power of 1350 Wkg−1. These all‐electrospun SCs show higher performance than the SCs using PANI films and commercial cellulose as separators. Finally, we report a flexible all‐electrospun and all‐solid‐state SC was fabricated using flexible substrates and a gel‐type electrolyte. Flexible SC has a specific capacitance of 270 F/g, confirming that the performance of all‐electrospun SCs is a promising approach for future textile energy storage devices for its potential use in wearable devices.