Strong and Robust Polyaniline-Based Supramolecular Hydrogels for Flexible Supercapacitors

We report a supramolecular strategy to prepare conductive hydrogels with outstanding mechanical and electrochemical properties, which are utilized for flexible solid-state supercapacitors (SCs) with high performance. The supramolecular assembly of polyaniline and polyvinyl alcohol through dynamic boronate bond yields the polyaniline-polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PPH), which shows remarkable tensile strength (5.3 MPa) and electrochemical capacitance (928 Fg(-1)). The flexible solid-state supercapacitor based on PPH provides a large capacitance (306 mFcm(-2) and 153 Fg(-1)) and a high energy density of 13.6 Whkg(-1), superior to other flexible supercapacitors. The robustness of the PPH-based supercapacitor is demonstrated by the 100% capacitance retention after 1000 mechanical folding cycles, and the 90% capacitance retention after 1000 galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles. The high activity and robustness enable the PPH-based supercapacitor as a promising power device for flexible electronics.