A flexible and self-healing supercapacitor based on activated carbon cloth/MnO2 composite

Flexible and self-healing supercapacitors are urgently needed to meet the practical applications of flexible and wearable electronics. Herein, we have prepared a flexible and self-healing supercapacitor by sandwiching a self-healing physically cross-linked PVA-H2SO4 electrolyte separator between two activated carbon cloth (ACC)/MnO2 electrode films. The ACC/MnO2 electrode is prepared by activation of carbon cloth in air at medium temperature and then decorated by MnO2 nanoflakes through hydrothermal growth, which provides the flexibility and electrochemical performance. The self-healing of supercapacitor originates from the self-healing physically cross-linked PVA-H2SO4 electrolyte, which can enable the recombination of the broken interfaces and the self-healing of the supercapacitor through dynamic hydrogen bonding. As a result, the supercapacitor demonstrates excellent electrochemical performance (high areal specific capacitance of 886.7 mF cm(-2) at 1 mA cm(-2) and excellent cycling performance with a capacitance retention of 87.69% over 10,000 cycles), good self-healing capability with similar to 80% capacitance retention after 5 cutting/healing cycles), and outstanding flexibility.