Conductive, tough, hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene hybrid fibers for wearable supercapacitors

• Homogeneous mobile PVA/GO dispersions without gelation were successfully obtained.
• Continuous PVA/RGO hybrid fibers were produced by spinning and chemical reduction.
• The hybrid fibers shows obviously higher toughness, hydrophilicity and capacitance.
• A yarn supercapacitor was assembled and exhibits an energy density of 5.97 mW h cm−3.
• The supercapacitor is flexible and robust enough to be weaved into a textile.

Graphene fibers based flexible supercapacitors have great potential as wearable power sources for textile electronics. However, their electrochemical performance is limited by the serious stacking of graphene sheets and their hydrophobicity in aqueous electrolytes. Meanwhile, their brittleness is unfavorable for practical application. Incorporation of nanofillers into graphene fibers has been proved effective for enhancing their capacitance, whereas often leading to deteriorated mechanical strength. Herein we demonstrate that the strength, toughness and capacitive performance of graphene-based fibers can be significantly enhanced simultaneously, simply by incorporating hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) into a non-liquid-crystalline graphene oxide (GO) dispersion before wet spinning and chemical reduction. The structure and properties of the resulted PVA/graphene hybrid fibers are systematically investigated, and the mechanism behind these enhancements is discussed in detail. The hybrid fiber with a PVA/GO weight ratio of 10/90 possesses a strength of 186 MPa, a toughness of 11.3 J cm−3, and a capacitance of 241 F cm−3 in 1 M H2SO4. A solid-state yarn supercapacitor assembled from these fibers exhibits a device energy of 5.97 mW h cm−3, and features excellent flexibility and bending stability. This device is robust enough to be integrated into textile and thus promising as wearable power supply for smart textiles.

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