A flexible polyaniline/graphene/bacterial cellulose supercapacitor electrode

Abstract

A polyaniline (PANI)/graphene (GN)/bacterial cellulose (BC) flexible and freestanding supercapacitor electrode is synthesized via a facile chemical polymerization and filtering method. The BC substrate with a three-dimensional (3D) fibrous network shows the advantages of superior mechanical robustness, good electrolyte absorption properties and large mass loading (9.2 mg cm⁻²) for the PANI/GN/BC film; thus, an appreciable areal capacitance of 4.16 F cm⁻², excellent tensile strength of 65.4 MPa and high flexibility can be achieved. Moreover, a symmetric supercapacitor coupled with this PANI/GN/BC paper exhibits a stable behavior in the bent state, as well as high areal capacitance (1.32 F cm⁻²) and energy density (0.12 mW h cm⁻²). This electrode based on the simple and low-cost process may open up new opportunities for flexible energy-storage devices.