In-situ growth of sub-micron tentacle-like polypyrrole on wolfram carbide coated fiberglass cloth for flexible quasi-solid-state supercapacitors

Abstract Textile-based supercapacitors have attracted much attention due to advantages of excellent flexibility, low-cost and small volume. In this study, a quasi-solid-state flexible supercapacitor was designed and manufactured using wolfram carbide (WC)@fiberglass cloth as substrate and electrodeposition PPy (polypyrrole) on it. The wolfram carbide enhanced the electrical conductivity and wettability of the fiberglass cloth, and PPy grow on WCF through electrochemical deposition can create advantageous ion channel. The fabricated PPy@WCF electrode possesses a high areal specific capacitance of 1796.12 mF cm−2 at 2 mA cm−2, and the as-prepared device shows a high specific capacitance 456.19 mF cm−2, with an excellent energy density of 40.55 μWh cm−2. In addition, the supercapacitor achieves a high capacitance retention of 80.03% after 10,000 charge and discharge cycles and 98.94% after 1000 bending cycles (at the bending angle of 180°). Three devices were connected in series which can power an electronic screen and illume ten LED lights favourably, indicating excellent practical application ability.