Cellulose fibers with porous structure and electrolyte absorption properties are considered to be good potential substrate for the deposition of energy material in energy storage devices.In this study, we directly proved this idea by comparing a series of hybrid electrodes based on home-made cellulose paper integrated with CNTs, and electrodeposited with MnO2 for supercapacitor. Paper was prepared from pure natural cellulose fibers without any additive by filtration method. Conformal CNTs layers were fabricated through simple solution dip and dry method, and MnO2 was prepared by electrochemical deposition. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al2O3 was used to cover the fibers for the preparation of substrates with limited electrolyte absorption for comparison. Configurations designed with different numbers of ion diffusion paths were compared and results show that cellulose fibers as substrate also function well as interior electrolyte baths and effectively facilitate the ion diffusion process. To further optimize the electrode, another CNTs layer was deposited on the top of MnO2 resulting in the configuration of Paper/CNTs/MnO2/CNTs. Both extra ion diffusion and electron transfer pathways were activated in this hybrid structure, showing superior supercapacitive performance than other samples with limited charge transfer paths. This paper highlights the merits of the mesoporous cellulose fibers as substrates for supercapacitor electrode, in which the water-swelling effect of the cellulose fibers can absorb electrolyte, and the mesoporous internal structure of the fibers can provide extra pathways for ions to diffuse to the energy materials.

Natural cellulose fiber as substrate for supercapacitor with extra ion diffusion pathway

246th National Meeting (2013)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.