Textile supercapacitors‐based on MnO2/SWNT/conducting polymer ternary composites

This paper describes a simple and fast process for the fabrication of flexible and textile‐based supercapacitors. Symmetric electrodes made up of binder‐free ternary composites of manganese oxide (MnO₂) nanoparticles, single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and a conducting polymer (either polyaniline (PANI) or poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)–poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)) were layer‐by‐layer deposited onto cotton substrates by dip coating method. Solid‐state supercapacitor devices were assembled using a gel electrolyte. Specific capacitances of 294 F/g and 246 F/g were obtained for MnO₂/SWNT/PANI and MnO₂/SWNT/PEDOT:PSS ternary nanocomposite supercapacitors, respectively. Power densities for these supercapacitors were 746.5 W/kg and 640.5 W/kg for MnO₂/SWNT/PANI and MnO₂/SWNT/PEDOT:PSS, respectively. Good capacity retention (more than 70%) upon cycling over 1000 times was achieved for both electrode compositions. Supercapacitors demonstrated in this work would be well suited as disposable power sources for wearable and intelligent textiles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.