International Journal of Energy Research, Vol.44, No.9, 7603-7616, 2020
Wearable supercapacitors based on nickel tungstate decorated commercial cotton fabrics
Symmetric supercapacitors (SSCs) with remarkable energy storing capability, high specific power as well as long-term cyclic stability were fabricated from nickel tungstate (NiWO4) @ nickel oxide (NiOx) decorated commercial cotton fabrics (CCFs). A commercial cotton-based textile was first made conductive by the state of the art ultrasonic spray coating method. This was followed by chemical and electrochemical processes to decorate activated CCFs with NiO(x)and NiWO4, respectively. The assembled SSCs had the merit of high specific energy of 12 mu Wh cm(-2)at a specific power of 69 mu W cm(-2)while showing reasonable cyclic stability. Fabricated devices retained over 80% of their initial capacitance after 5500 continuous charge/discharge cycles. The flexibility of the devices was investigated under bending, twisting, and folding providing reliable evidence on the wearability of the fabricated SSCs. Cyclic voltammograms of the fabricated NiWO4@NiOx@CCF SSCs showed only a slight change and retained over 95% of the capacitance under bending and folding. The fabricated NiWO4@NiOx@CCF SSCs, in this regard, are promising energy storage systems to power up high-performance wearable electronics.
Keywords:cotton fabric;electrochemical deposition;in situ chemical synthesis;nickel oxide;nickel tungstate;supercapacitors;ultrasonic spray coating