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Polyaniline Sandwiched Ultra-strong PVA/PAA Hybrid Hydrogel for Low-temperature Resistant Supercapacitors and Strain Sensors
Summary
Researchers developed a tough, low-temperature-resistant hydrogel material for use in flexible electronics and energy storage devices. While focused on materials engineering, advances in flexible electronics that avoid brittle plastic components could reduce certain types of plastic waste.
Abstract Hydrogels are a class of promising candidate materials for the preparation of emerging quasi-solid-state supercapacitor electrolytes. However, the inherent defects of poor mechanical strength, easy fragmentation, and bad low-temperature tolerance seriously hinder their further practical application. Herein, a polyaniline sandwiched polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid hybrid hydrogel (PVA-PAA-PANI) electrolyte with high strength and ideal low-temperature resistance was constructed by combining the Hofmeister effect and in-situ polymerization. This PVA-PAA-PANI hydrogel can provide amazing comprehensive mechanical properties, including 3.5 MPa of breaking strength, 700% of elongation at break, and 11.5 MJ/m 3 of toughness, and exhibits satisfactory fatigue resistance. This PVA-PAA-PANI hydrogel-based supercapacitor has a specific capacitance of 32.4 mF/cm 2 and achieves 61% capacitance retention even under the harsh cold environment of -20°C. Notably, the capacitance retention reaches 79.2% of the initial state after suffering more than 5000 continuous charge/discharge cycles at -20°C. This PVA-PAA-PANI hydrogel also has good linear sensing behavior and can accurately detect different limb movements and even breathing or speech, demonstrating ideal strain sensing properties. This work develops new strategies for the preparation of high-strength hydrogels for energy storage devices and sensors, and promotes their application in real-life applications.
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