A highly flexible solid-state supercapacitor based on the carbon nanotube doped graphene oxide/polypyrrole composites with superior electrochemical performances

• CNT-GO/PPy ternary composites have been prepared by one-pot electropolymerization.
• The supercapacitive performance of GO/PPy is remarkably improved by doping CNTs.
• A light and thin highly flexible solid-state supercapacitor has been fabricated.
• The supercapacitor presents a high specific capacitance and cycle stability.

Flexible electrodes of ternary composites, in which highly conductive carbon nanotube films (CNFs) are coated with carbon nanotube-doped graphene oxide/polypyrrole (CNT-GO/PPy), have been fabricated via facile electrochemical synthesis. Long and short CNTs are separately doped into the composites (lCNT-GO/PPy and sCNT-GO/PPy) and their electrochemical performances are compared. Electrochemical measurements indicate that the doping of CNTs in the composites significantly improves the electrochemical behaviors of the GO/PPy electrodes. Notably, the lCNT-GO/PPy electrodes show superior electrochemical properties with respect to the sCNT-GO/PPy electrodes, which is related to the introduction of abundant CNTs in the former electrodes and their special microstructures. Two symmetric electrodes with the lCNT-GO/PPy composites coated on CNFs are assembled to fabricate a solid-state supercapacitor device, which features lightweight, ultrathinness, and high flexibility. The device achieves a high areal and volumetric specific capacitance of 70.0 mF cm−2 at 10 mV s−1 and 6.3 F cm−3 at 0.043 A cm−3, respectively. It also shows superior rate performance and cycle stability, with a capacitance retention rate of 87.7% for 10,000 cycles. The supercapacitor device fabricated is promising for the use in lightweight and flexible integrated electronics.

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