Scalable Metalized Polyacrylonitrile Fiber as the Current Collector for High-Performance Flexible Supercapacitors on Flexible Circuits

The broad market prospect of portable electronics and wearable devices is making demands for flexible energy storage device with high capacity density and compatibility of the manufacturing process of flexible printed circuit (FPC). Herein we raise a convenient and high-efficiency technique for high performance flexible supercapacitor devices based on nickel conductive membrane (NCM). The NCM was prepared by two-step method, which involved the sputtering of nickel on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber membrane and electrodeposition of more nickel on it. The NCM contributes to enhancing electron transport/collection and releasing the stress generated from cycling. With electrodeposited MnO
₂
and PPy, the NCM electrodes displayed high performance (271.6 F/g for NCM@MnO
₂
and 175.1 F/g for NCM@PPy), enhanced rate performance and outstanding cycling stability. This kind of electrode is able to be fabricated on FPC conveniently with good flexibility with different packaging methods (cross-finger type and sandwich type). This study may arouse broad interests in developing large scaled flexible power devices.