Materials Today Energy
Cellulose nanofiber based flexible N-doped carbon mesh for energy storage electrode with super folding endurance
Graphical abstract
The novel flexible N-doped carbon mesh electrode materials are prepared via the simple CNC wet spinning and carbonization process using celluose nanofiber, graphene oxide, and silk fibroin as raw materials, which exhibit good electrochemical and excellent folding endurance .
Introduction
The flexible electrodes have attracted much attention in industry and academia due to their great potential applications in the flexible electronics, such as wearable electronic devices [1,2], e-skins [3,4], implantable medical devices [5,6], flexible display [7,8], flexible energy storage devices [9,10], etc. Generally speaking, the flexible electrodes should possess some characteristics, such as super folding endurance, high conductivity, good performance, lightweight, stability, economical, easy-processibility, large scale production, etc. Especially, the flexibility, conductivity and performance are the most important performance for flexible devices.
Among all existing potential flexible electrode materials, the carbon-based flexible electrode materials have been extensively studied because of their excellence inherent performance (such as excellent conductivity, mechanical properties, stability, flexible, etc.), easy regulation microstructure and a huge variety of effective preparation methods [[11], [12], [13], [14]]. Therefore, a large number of the free standing carbon based planar and fiber-like flexible electrodes were successfully prepared. The free standing carbon based planar flexible electrodes not only exhibit excellent flexibility, but also exhibit some other advantages, such as mass production, lightweight, pattern designability, tailorable performance, high reliability, etc [15,16]. They can easy integrate with desired shapes. In addition to exhibiting good flexibility, the free standing carbon based fiber-like flexible electrodes can also exhibit excellent ignitability. Therefore, the fiber-like flexible electrode with different functions can be easily woven to form flexible textiles. However, they also have some shortcomings, such as low energy density, low reliability (easy suffer from mechanical damage), poor tailorability, difficult to prepare long enough fiber, etc. These shortcomings can be detrimental toward the widely applications of free standing carbon based fiber-like flexible electrodes. In addition to the above two structural topography, the novel flexible mesh electrode materials (with fiber-like and planar electrode characteristics) have attracted much attention due to their excellent transparency, conductivity and flexibility [[17], [18], [19], [20]]. They can be widely used in the field of optoelectronic devices (such as electronic displays, light emitting diodes, solar cells, touch screens and so on). At present, the flexible mesh electrode materials are mainly focus on metal-based flexible mesh electrode materials (such as Au, Ag, Cu, and Ni -based flexible mesh electrode material) [[21], [22], [23], [24]]. Compared with metal materials, the carbon materials show greater application potential in the field of flexible mesh electrode material due to their high surface area, porosity, excellent electrical properties, good chemical stability, low cost, and flexible designability. This kind of material may be more suitable to use as flexible energy storage electrodes. There are many methods for preparing mesh electrode material. However, these methods are usually cumbersome and involve costly patterning techniques [[25], [26], [27], [28]]. This shortcoming can be detrimental toward the widely applications of flexible mesh electrode materials. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a simple and efficient preparation method of carbon based mesh electrode materials.
In this study, we are committed to the preparation of carbon-based flexible mesh electrode material via the simple CNC wet spinning technology using celluose nanofiber, graphene oxide, and silk fibroin as raw materials. The carbon-based mesh electrode materials exhibit high electrical conductivity and good flexibility. The carbon-based flexible mesh electrode materials show broad application prospects in energy storage electrode materials.
Section snippets
Preparation of carbon-based flexible mesh electrode materials
Cellulose nanofiber, graphene oxide, and silk fibroin were prepared as mentioned in our previous papers [29,30]. The cellulose nanofiber (0.56 wt %), graphene oxide (1.16 wt %), and silk fibroin (9.35 wt %, the mass ratio of cellulose nanofibers: graphene oxide: silk fibroin is 55:40:5) were mixed by the high speed homogenizer to form the spinning solution. The uniform composite spinning solution was defoamed in a vacuum oven for 3 h (at ambient temperature), and then was stored at 4 °C before
Results and discussion
The CGS spinning solution exhibits excellent wet-spinning property, which can produce consecutive wet CGS fiber and then forms the wet CGS mesh. The wet CGS meshes can be take out from the coagulation bath by the steel wires in the four sides of the wet CGS mesh due to their good strength and then air-dried. During the drying process, the 2D constrained force field will gradually generate in the wet CGS mesh due to their shrinkage. This 2D force field is essential for obtaining high quality CGS
Conclusions
In conclusion, the cellulose nanofiber based flexible N-doped carbon mesh were prepared by the simple CNC wet spinning and carbonization process using celluose nanofiber, graphene oxide and silk fibroin as raw materials. The highly wrinkle morphology of the carbon fiber structural unit is exhibit preferred orientation along its own axial direction of the carbon fiber. Furthermore, the carbon fiber structural units of the CGS-X mesh are welded together at the intersection. The CGS-X meshes
Credit author statement
Linlin Liu: Conceptualization,Methodology,Validation,Formal analysis Writing, Original Draft.
Songqi Hu: Writing - Review & Editing, Supervision,Project administration,Funding acquisition.
Kezheng Gao: Investigation, , Data Curation,Visualization.
Declaration of conflict of interest
We have complied with Elsevier's ethical requirements: This work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out. If accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other
Acknowledgments
Financial support was kindly supplied by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21501154), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 3102017zy007) and Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shanxi Province of China (No. 2017JQ5068).
References (36)
- et al.
Graphene-based materials for supercapacitor electrodes - a review
J. Materiomics.
(2016) - et al.
Carbon-based flexible micro-supercapacitor fabrication via mask-free ambient micro-plasma-jet etching
Carbon
(2017) - et al.
Infrared-transparent films based on conductive graphene network fabrics for electromagnetic shielding
Carbon
(2015) - et al.
Hierarchical structured carbon derived from bagasse wastes: a simple and efficient synthesis route and its improved electrochemical properties for high-performance supercapacitors
J. Power Sources.
(2016) - et al.
Wearable electronics and smart textiles: a critical review
Sensors
(2014) - et al.
Fiber-based wearable electronics: a review of materials, fabrication, devices, and applications
Adv. Mater.
(2014) - et al.
Recent progress in electronic skin
Adv. Sci.
(2015) - et al.
User-interactive electronic skin for instantaneous pressure visualization
Nat. Mater.
(2013) - et al.
Implantable energy-harvesting devices
Adv. Mater.
(2018) - et al.
Wearable and implantable sensors for biomedical applications
Metallic nanowire-based transparent electrodes for next generation flexible devices: a review
Small
Flexible active-matrix electronic ink display
Nature
Paper-based electrodes for flexible energy storage devices
Adv. Sci.
Inkjet-printed flexible, transparent and aesthetic energy storage devices based on PEDOT: PSS/Ag grid electrodes
J. Mater. Chem.
Flexible and wearable all-solid-state supercapacitors with ultrahigh energy density based on a carbon fiber fabric electrode
Adv. Energy Mat.
Nanocarbon-based materials for flexible all-solid-state supercapacitors
Adv. Mater.
Highly stable laser-scribed flexible planar microsupercapacitor using mushroom derived carbon electrodes
Adv. Mater. Interfaces.
Flexible fiber-shaped supercapacitors based on hierarchically nanostructured composite electrodes
Nano Research
Cited by (11)
Design and fabrication of nanocellulose-based microfibers by wet spinning
2023, Chemical Engineering ScienceFolding endurance and damage mechanisms of SiC fiber braided fabrics
2023, Ceramics InternationalApplication of long fibrous coconut silk-based porous carbon in flexible supercapacitor
2023, Journal of Energy StorageStimuli-responsive nanoparticle-nanofiber hybrids for drug delivery and photodynamic therapy
2023, International Journal of PharmaceuticsCitation Excerpt :Among these, the electrospinning method steps forward due to offering a versatile approach for generating nanoparticle-nanofiber hybrids (NNHs) and enabling low-cost mass production. Such electrospun NNH platforms are exploited in a wide range of application areas, including energy (Liu et al., 2020; Pan et al., 2017), tissue engineering (Ma et al., 2021; Morsink et al., 2022), wound healing (Dong and Guo, 2021), and particularly drug delivery applications (Bohara, 2019; Taylor-Pashow et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2010). The electrospinning method also enables the versatile production of stimuli-responsive NNHs that can compensate for the disadvantages of conventional dosage forms (Katz and Willner, 2004; Taylor-Pashow et al., 2010) and nanoparticle-drug formulations (Ajdary et al., 2018; Jeevanandam et al., 2018; Katz and Willner, 2004).
Porous carbonized cotton loaded with Zn–Cu–M(M=O, S) nanocomposites for electrochemical energy storage and oxygen evolution reaction
2021, Materials Today EnergyCitation Excerpt :The capacity stabilities of the electrodes were showed in Fig. 4e. The better cyclic stability of Cc and PCc is due to their double-layer energy storage mode [40], and the poorer reversibility of the initial faraday redox reaction over multiple cycles resulted in the relatively weaker stability of CSpC. The stability of CSpC was improved slightly by compounding the ZnO nanoparticles, which probably boil down to the reason that the ZnO nanoparticles made the composite structure more compact and greater capacitance contribution [41,42].
Multifunctional nanolayered renewable carbon for electromagnetic interference and energy devices
2021, Materials Today Energy