Investigations of poly(pyrrole)-coated cotton fabrics prepared in blends of anionic and cationic surfactants as flexible electrode

• Poly(pyrrole)-coated cotton fabrics were prepared in mixed surfactants.
• The fabrics are soft, lightweight, mechanically robust, and highly electrical conductive.
• Potential applications of the fabrics as flexible electrodes were tested.
• The fabric electrodes exhibited high discharge capacity and excellent cycling performance.

In recent years, much effort has been dedicated to achieve lightweight, stretchable and flexible energy-storage devices for wearable electronics. Here we report an everyday cotton fabric coated with poly(pyrrole) as flexible electrodes. Poly(pyrrole) nanoparticles are synthesized on the fabrics via a simple chemical polymerization process with the mixed surfactants of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as soft template. A highly conductive fabric with surface resistance of 14 Ω/□ can be produced by changing surfactant concentration. Such a conductive textile shows outstanding flexibility and stretchability, and demonstrates strong adhesion between the PPy and the cellulose fiber. The fabric electrode exhibits a discharge capacity of 51.7 mAh g−1 with high cycling stability (negligible decay after 100 cycles).

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