Fabrication and application of carbon nanotubes/cellulose composite paper

• The CNTs used in this paper are very straight and have high crystallinity.
• CNTs were absorbed and embedded in cellulose pulp.
• The content of CNTs can be accurately controlled by vacuum filter method.
• The CNT-cellulose paper perform a high electrochemical properties.
• The EMI SE characteristics of the composite paper also have a good performance.

A kind of flexible carbon nanotubes (CNTs) paper was investigated. Cellulose fibers were used as matrix and CNTs were used as conductive additive. The CNT papers were made by suction filtration method. The size and conductivity of the CNT paper can be arbitrarily tailored. The CNT papers show good electrical conductivity, electrochemical and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding properties. The electrical conductivity and (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) of CNT papers were enhanced with an addition of CNTs in the paper. The electrical conductivity increased from 9.92 S m−1 to 216.3 S m−1 and SE improved from 15 dB to 45 dB with a loading of CNTs from 10 wt% to 71 wt%. The CNT papers also show excellent applications for lithium ion battery, supercapacitors and zinc-manganese batteries. The testing results show that the capacity of supercapacitor reached 46 F/g at a scan rate of 5 mV/s. The reversible discharge capacity reached 474.0 mAh/g with the paper as anode current collector of lithium ion battery. The discharge capacity of Zn–Mn battery increased 100% when CNT paper replaced the graphite collector as current collector.