Highly flexible and transferable supercapacitors with ordered three-dimensional MnO2/Au/MnO2 nanospike arrays†
Yuan Gao,Huanyu Jin,Qingfeng Lin,Xiang Li,Mohammad Mahdi Tavakoli,Siu-Fung Leung,Wing Man Tang,Limin Zhou,Helen Lai Wa Chan,Zhiyong Fan
Journal of Materials Chemistry A Pub Date : 04/02/2015 00:00:00 , DOI:10.1039/C5TA01960E
Abstract

Ordered three-dimensional nanostructures are highly attractive for energy storage application, particularly for high-performance flexible supercapacitors. Here, we report a unique MnO2/Au/MnO2 nanospike (MAMNSP) supercapacitor structure based on free-standing 3-D gold (Au) NSP films. The NSP films are highly flexible and transferable onto an arbitrary flexible substrate to enable applications that require high flexibility. The large surface area of this unique structure leads to a remarkable enhancement in electrochemical performance, 1.9 and 4.26 times higher capacitance as compared with MnO2/Au NSP (MANSP) and MnO2/planar (MAPL) electrodes, respectively. The all-solid-state symmetric supercapacitors based on MAMNSP electrodes have been fabricated and systematic performance characterization showed that the devices have a high volumetric capacitance of 20.35 F cm−3 and a specific energy of 1.75 × 10−3 W h cm−3. In addition, the bendability measurement showed that the supercapacitor devices are highly flexible and reliable. By virtue of simple fabrication procedures and enhanced electrochemical performance, such 3-D structures have highly promising potential for portable and flexible energy storage systems for a wide range of practical applications.

Graphical abstract: Highly flexible and transferable supercapacitors with ordered three-dimensional MnO2/Au/MnO2 nanospike arrays