Highly compression‐tolerant folded carbon nanotube/paper as solid‐state supercapacitor electrode

Abstract

An original highly compression‐tolerant folded carbon nanotube (CNT)/paper electrode, which could be assembled into compressible solid‐state supercapacitor with polyvinyl alcohol/phosphoric acid gel electrolyte, is designed. It is worth mentioning that both the compression‐tolerant ability of the folded structure and the strain ability of the CNT electrode are conducive to achieving the compressible supercapacitor. Such device could withstand pressure and shape‐changing, which has great potential to be used in various environments. This compressible solid‐state supercapacitor also owns the maximum specific capacitance of 11.07 mF/cm 2 , and capacitance retention retains more than 90% after 100 cycling times. Furthermore, the stability performance of the device is also discussed which is almost steady under 50% strain state. When two devices are connected in serial and fully charged, this power unit could light up a red light emitting diode continuously even under the compression state. Therefore, this device performs as a promising candidate to be compatible with other compression‐tolerant electronics and enlightens a broad field of compressible energy storage and self‐powered systems.