Construction of multifunctional cellulose nanofibers/reduced graphene oxide carbon aerogels by bidirectional freezing for supercapacitor electrodes and strain sensors

Authors：Dong, Zhaoji; Zhong, Li; Zhang, Yuhui; Liu, Fei; Huang, Hui; Xu, Zhaoyang^*

Source：Diamond and Related Materials, 2023, 140: 110555.

DOI：10.1016/j.diamond.2023.110555

• Cellulose nanofibers
• Bidirectional freezing
• Carbon aerogel
• Supercapacitor electrodes
• Strain sensors

Carbon aerogel is an excellent conductive porous carbon material, but suffers from poor mechanical properties and fatigue resistance, which greatly limits its application as a flexible electronic device. Herein, the cellulose nanofibers/reduced graphene oxide carbon aerogel (BCRCA) with a unique layered structure was prepared by bidirectional freezing technique and thermal annealing. BCRCA's layered structure gives it ultra-low density (3.25 mg/cm3), high specific surface area (159.53 m2/g) and good compression properties (91.3 % stress retention, 100 cycles at 50 % compression). In addition, BCRCA for supercapacitor electrodes has a high specific capacity of 104.3 F g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 and a high capacitance retention rate of 93 % at 5000 cycles at 2 A g-1. Notably, the BCRCA assembled into a wearable strain sensor exhibits a stable current signal for real-time monitoring of finger, wrist, and elbow joint movements. These advantages make BCRCA have broad applica-tion prospects in the field of electronic energy storage devices and wearable strain sensors.

• Institution
  南京林业大学