title: Extremely Durable, Flexible Supercapacitors with Greatly Improved Performance at High Temperatures.
abstract: The reliability and durability of energy storage devices are as important as their essential characteristics (e.g., energy and power density) for stable power output and long lifespan and thus much more crucial under harsh conditions. However, energy storage under extreme conditions is still a big challenge because of unavoidable performance decays and the inevitable damage of components. Here, we report high-temperature operating, flexible supercapacitors (f-SCs) that can provide reliable power output and extreme durability under severe electrochemical, mechanical, and thermal conditions. The outstanding capacitive features (e.g., ∼40% enhancement of the rate capability and a maximum capacitances of 170 F g(-1) and 18.7 mF cm(-2) at 160 °C) are attributed to facilitated ion transport at elevated temperatures. Under high-temperature operation and/or a flexibility test in both static and dynamic modes at elevated temperatures >100 °C, the f-SCs showed extreme long-term stability of 100000 cycles (>93% of initial capacitance value) and mechanical durability after hundreds of bending cycles (at bend angles of 60-180°). Even at 120 °C, the versatile design of tandem serial and parallel f-SCs was demonstrated to provide both desirable energy and power requirements at high temperatures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
authors.forename: Sung-Kon
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Material Science, Korea Basic Science Institute , 113 Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-333, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hae Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Institute of Chemical Process, Seoul National University , 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-744, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong-Chan
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
authors.forename: Paul V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) , Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ho Seok
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Park
keywords: energy storage; graphene; high temperature; polybenzimidazole; supercapacitor