Textile supercapacitors-based on MnO2/SWNT/conducting polymer ternary composites

This paper describes a simple and fast process for the fabrication of flexible and textile-based supercapacitors. Symmetric electrodes made up of binder-free ternary composites of manganese oxide (MnO2) nanoparticles, single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and a conducting polymer (either polyaniline (PANI) or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly( styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS)) were layer-by-layer deposited onto cotton substrates by dip coating method. Solid-state supercapacitor devices were assembled using a gel electrolyte. Specific capacitances of 294 F/g and 246 F/g were obtained for MnO2/SWNT/PANI and MnO2/SWNT/PEDOT:PSS ternary nanocomposite supercapacitors, respectively. Power densities for these supercapacitors were 746.5W/kg and 640.5W/kg for MnO2/SWNT/PANI and MnO2/SWNT/PEDOT: PSS, respectively. Good capacity retention (more than 70%) upon cycling over 1000 times was achieved for both electrode compositions. Supercapacitors demonstrated in this work would be well suited as disposable power sources for wearable and intelligent textiles. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.