All-textile flexible supercapacitors using electrospun poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanofibers

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanofibers were obtained by the combination of electrospinning and vapor-phase polymerization. The fibers had diameters around 350 nm, and were soldered at most intersections, providing a strong dimensional stability to the mats. The nanofiber mats demonstrated very high conductivity (60 ± 10 S cm−1, the highest value reported so far for polymer nanofibers) as well as improved electrochemical properties, due to the ultraporous nature of the electrospun mats. The mats were incorporated into all-textile flexible supercapacitors, using carbon cloths as the current collectors and electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibrous membranes as the separator. The textile layers were stacked and embedded in a solid electrolyte containing an ionic liquid and PVDF-co-HFP as the host polymer. The resulting supercapacitors were totally flexible and demonstrated interesting and stable performances in ambient conditions.