Large Areal Mass, Mechanically Tough and Freestanding Electrode Based on Heteroatom-doped Carbon Nanofibers for Flexible Supercapacitors

A flexible and freestanding supercapacitor electrode with a N, P-co-doped carbon nanofiber network (N, P-CNFs)/graphene (GN) composite loaded on bacterial cellulose (BC) is first designed and fabricated in a simple, low-cost, and effective approach. The porous structure and excellent mechanical properties make the BC paper an ideal substrate that shows a large areal mass of 8 mgcm(-2). As a result, the flexible N, P-CNFs/GN/BC paper electrode shows appreciable areal capacitance (1990 mFcm(-2) in KOH and 2588 mFcm(-2) in H2SO4 electrolytes) without sacrificing gravimetric capacitance (248.8 Fg(-1) and 323.5 Fg(-1)), exhibits excellent cycling ability (without capacity loss after 20000 cycles), and remarkable tensile strength (42.8 MPa). By direct coupling of two membrane electrodes, the symmetric supercapacitor delivers a prominent areal capacitance of 690 mFcm(-2) in KOH and 898 mFcm(-2) in H2SO4, and remarkable power/energy density (19.98 mWcm(-2)/0.096 mWhcm(-2) in KOH and 35.01 mWcm(-2)/0.244 mWhcm(-2) in H2SO4). Additionally, it shows stable behavior in both bent and flat states. These results promote new opportunities for N, PCNFs/GN/BC paper electrodes as high areal performance, freestanding electrodes for flexible supercapacitors.