Cellulose from wood as a raw material has quickly been adapted and used in more and more advanced products such as 3D-batteries and supercapacitors. One family of cellulosic materials that have been used and has gained considerable interest is the nanocellulose family, predominantly named cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). CNFs are high aspect ratio nanoparticles, 4-5 nm in width and up to microns in length, with several desirable properties such as high mechanical strength and a high specific surface area which can be easily functionalized. CNFs can also be used to prepare wet stable aerogels using different chemistries for crosslinking and techniques for shaping the aerogels. Using a consecutive shaping-oxidation-freezing method it is possible to produce chemically crosslinked, wet stable and robust CNF aerogel beads with considerably reduced size (1 mm in diameter). These aerogels can later easily be functionalized by the Layer-by-Layer method where oppositely charged polyelectrolytes and/or charged nanoparticles are adsorbed alternately creating a multi-layered, functional structure on the entire surface of the aerogel. In this way aerogels with properties ranging from electrical conductivity, redox activity and antibacterial properties been produced. In the present work size-reduced CNF aerogel beads have been used as the template for incorporating electrical conductivity and redox active species using the LbL-method with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polyaniline nanofibers (PANi). The adsorption of the PANi and CNTs on the aerogel beads is straightforward and produces beads displaying high electrical conductivity and redox activity. Characterization of the obtained aerogel beads reveal that a single bead can act as an electrode in a pseudocapacitor displaying a good capacity and good cycling stability. As the beads have a significantly reduced size it is possible to structure them creating a unique design of the electrode after functionalization which is not possible with a pre-shaped aerogel. Furthermore, as the beads have a significantly reduced size they open up for the possibility of using them with different printing techniques where they are mixed with an appropriate ink making it possible to print energy storage devices.<br/>

Nanocellulose aerogel beads: Structurable and printable energy storage

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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