The Salt and Paper Battery; Ultrafast and All-polymer Based
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The Salt and Paper Battery; Ultrafast and All-polymer Based Gustav Nyström1, Aamir Razaq1, Albert Mihranyan1, Leif Nyholm2 and Maria Strømme1 1
Nanotechnology and Functional Materials, Department of Engineering Sciences, The Ångström
Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 534, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden 2
Department of Materials Chemistry, The Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 538,
751 21 Uppsala, Sweden ABSTRACT We have recently developed a flexible battery using two common, inexpensive ingredients: cellulose and salt. This lightweight, rechargeable battery uses thin pieces of paper—originating from cellulose fibers from the environmentally polluting Cladophora sp.algae —as electrodes, while a solution of sodium chloride acts as the electrolyte. Conducting polymers for battery applications have been subject to numerous investigations during the last decades. However, the functional charging rates and the cycling stabilities have so far been found to be insufficient for practical applications. These shortcomings can, at least partially, be explained by the fact that thick layers of the conducting polymers have been used to obtain sufficient capacities of the batteries. We now introduce a novel nanostructured high-surface area electrode material for energy storage applications composed of cellulose fibers of algal origin individually coated with a 50 nm thin layer of polypyrrole. Our results show the hitherto highest reported charge capacities and charging rates for an all polymer paper-based battery. The composite conductive paper material is shown to have a specific surface area of 80 m2/g and batteries based on this material can be charged with currents as high as 600 mA/cm2. The aqueous-based batteries, which are entirely based on cellulose and polypyrrole and exhibit charge capacities between 25 and 33 mAh/g or 38-50 mAh/g per weight of the active material, open up new possibilities for the production of environmentally friendly, cost efficient, up-scalable and lightweight energy storage systems. INTRODUCTION The development of thin, flexible, lightweight and environmentally friendly batteries and supercapacitors is currently an active field of research [1] and in this process, the preparation of novel redox polymer and electronically conducting polymer-based electrode materials is essential. Recent results show [2,3] that it is possible to manufacture redox polymer-based electrodes and batteries with high-capacities and very good cycling performances, but the corresponding development within the field of electronically conducting polymers is ongoing. Conducting polymers are particularly interesting materials as devices based on these materials may be used as adaptable energy storage devices due to their inherent fast redox switching, high conductivity, mechanical flexibility, low weight and possibility to be integrated into existing production processes [4]. One way to improve the performance of non-metal based energy storage devices is to use composite electrode materials of conductive pol
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