Wearable and Flexible All-Solid-State Supercapacitor Based on MXene and Chitin

Abstract

Biopolymer-based materials have recently received great interest as potential components for wearable energy-storage devices. They can offer attractive and valuable properties such as renewability, biocompatibility, thermal and chemical stability, flexibility, durability, and biodegradability. Herein, a wearable and flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor that uses chitin as a biocompatible scaffold for integrating all device components, such as electrodes and an electrolyte, is developed. Chitin provides mechanical stability to electrode materials and supports the ionic liquid-based gel electrolyte, and it also acts as a bonding agent to integrate all those components. Additionally, titanium carbide MXene is used as an active material for the proposed power source device. The MXene/chitin-based all-solid-state supercapacitor exhibits impressive electrochemical performance, showing outstanding electrode conductivity, high capacitance, low internal resistance, high power density, and long-term cycling stability. Moreover, it provides highly desired features concerning wearable devices, that is, excellent flexibility and mechanical strength under bending deformations, as well as sustainability and biodegradability. As a proof of concept, the MXene/chitin-base device is applied for powering an electronic gadget. Herein, an important step is represented toward power-efficient, wearable, and sustainable energy-storage devices.