High-Performance Electrochemical Capacitors Based On Hybrid Graphene/Metal Oxide Nanostructured Textiles

Large scale energy storage system with low cost, high power and long cycle life is crucial for addressing the energy problem when connected with renewable energy production. To realize large-scale applications of the energy storage devices, there remain several key issues including the development of low-cost, high-performance materials that are environmentally friendly and compatible with low-temperature and large-scale processing. In this talk, we will present a novel structure based on graphene, transition metal oxide and textiles where solution-exfoliated graphene nanosheets conformably coated on highly porous textiles function as three-dimensional conductors and electrodeposited metal oxide nanostructures function as active electrode materials. Electrochemical capacitors based on hybrid graphene/metal oxide based textiles in aqueous electrolytes exhibit very promising characteristics with a power density of ~110 kW/kg, and excellent cycling performance of >95% capacitance retention over 5000 cycles, which are substantially better than those previously reported for this oxide-based system. Such low-cost, high-performance energy textiles based on all-solution-processed graphene/metal oxide hierarchical nanostructures offer great promise in grid-scale energy storage device applications.