Plastic supercapacitors could solve energy storage problems

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"Key takeaways

• A type of plastic called PEDOT that can conduct electricity is currently used to protect the internal components of electronic devices from static electricity and in organic solar cells and electrochromic devices, but it also has the ability to store electric charge somewhat like a battery.
• UCLA chemists have created a new type of textured, fur-like PEDOT film with more surface area to store charge and built a supercapacitor with it that stored nearly ten times more charge than conventional PEDOT and lasted nearly 100,000 charging cycles.
• The advance could lead to supercapacitors that can meet some energy storage demands as the world transitions to renewable, sustainable energy production.

...

But in the 1970s, scientists accidentally discovered that some plastics can also conduct electricity. This finding revolutionized the field and opened the door to applications in electronics and energy storage. ...

UCLA chemists are addressing these challenges with an innovative method to control the morphology of PEDOT to grow nanofibers precisely. These nanofibers exhibit exceptional conductivity and expanded surface area, both of which are crucial for enhancing the energy storage capabilities of PEDOT. ..."

From the abstract:

"The development of commercially viable composite conducting polymer electrodes for energy storage is limited by the requirement of multiple and complex fabrication steps, low energy density, and poor cycling stability.

In this work, a straightforward, economical, single-step method is developed for creating densely packed nanostructured PEDOT/graphene composite material demonstrating its application as an electrode for supercapacitors. The electrode achieved the highest mass loading reported so far in the literature for composite vapor phase polymerized PEDOT/rGO using aqueous FeCl3 (25.2 mg cm−2), and displayed an ultrahigh areal capacitance of 4628.3 mF cm−2 at 0.5 mA cm−2. The symmetric two-electrode setup displayed an energy density of 169.3 µWh cm−2 and a 70% capacitance retention after 70 000 cycles, showcasing its exceptional performance and durability."

  

Plastic supercapacitors could solve energy storage problems | UCLA "New process grows PEDOT nanofibers with superior electrical conductivity and more surface area to store charge"

Direct Fabrication of 3D Electrodes Based on Graphene and Conducting Polymers for Supercapacitor Applications (no public access)

An example of how EDOT monomer vapors react with a droplet of graphene oxide and ferric chloride to form PEDOT nanofibers.