Flexible self-standing carbon fabric electrode prepared by using simple route for wearable applications

Large-scale production of the high-performance carbonized cotton fabric electrode is still of great challenge. Herein, we report a novel route to fabricate flexible self-standing carbon fabric electrode by coupling with mercerization and carbonization methods. Mercerization is an important pretreated process in the traditional textile industry. After the mercerizing treatment, NaOH can permeate inside of the crystalline as well as the amorphous regions of cellulose fibers. Meanwhile, under the certain tension, the molecule chains of cellulose fiber can be rearranged and the orientation will be increased. The prepared carbonized mercerized cotton fabric (CMF) by using the novel route presents high specific capacitance, good cycling stability and rate performance. Furthermore, the assembled supercapacitor by using two carbonized mercerized cotton fabric electrodes displays a good volumetric energy density of 1.57 mWh/cm³ at the power density of 23.08 mW/cm³. This route will not only provide a simple one-step activation method to create carbon electrode, but also can realize the large-scale manufacture of self-standing carbon electrode based on the low-cost textile.