Conducting polymers have long been investigated as prospective charge-storage materials for electrochemical capacitors and rechargeable batteries. However, fabrication of conducting polymer electrodes to date have relied either on electrodeposition to yield thin films for 2D planar devices or solution-based precipitation and subsequent incorporation into composite-electrodes for 3D devices; both methods limit the footprint-normalized energy or power performance of the resulting energy-storage device. Recently, the Reynolds group at Georgia Tech has developed synthetic methods that yield gram-scale quantities of solution-processable conducting polymers, whose solubility characteristics are tuned via side-chain derivatization of ProDOT and EDOT structures.<sup> </sup>We exploit the tunable solubility of these polymers to facilitate polymer incorporation as conformal thin films throughout macroscopically thick carbon-based paper electrodes via solution-based methods. Distribution of the polymer as a thin conformal coating on 3D carbon paper-based electrodes maintains the inherent high-rate character of the polymer, while the macroscopically thick substrate amplifies the capacitance/capacity per geometric footprint by factors of ten or greater compared to analogous planar thin film electrodes. To demonstrate the technological promise of 3D polymer–carbon electrode, we perform electrochemical tests in three-electrode cells and two-terminal devices, assessing such critical characteristics as rate-dependent capacitance/capacity, self-discharge, and cycle life.

Solution-processable conducting polymers for macroscale high-rate energy-storage devices

256th National Meeting (2018)

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