Polypyrrole/titania-coated cotton fabrics for flexible supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract Flexible and wearable supercapacitors are mostly desired with the fast development of wearable electronics in recent years. Herein, polypyrrole (PPy)/titania (TiO 2 )-coated cotton fabrics as flexible supercapacitor electrodes were prepared using both the sol-gel approach and the in situ oxidative polymerization. The maximum electrical conductivity of the composite fabrics is 6.3 S cm −1 , implying that these fabrics could be directly used as electrodes. The obtained quasi-rectangular shaped cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves indicate good capacitive behavior of the composite fabrics. The GCD results demonstrate that the fabric electrodes show a significantly improved specific capacitance of 733 F g −1 with a high energy density of 44.4 Wh kg −1 at a current density of 0.6 A cm -2 as compared with the value of 366 F g −1 without TiO 2 . Corresponding slow decrease in specific capacitance with the increased current density indicates superior rate capability. These excellent electrochemical properties of the PPy/TiO 2 -coated fabrics extend their potential applications in various self-powered wearable electronics.