Towards large-scale electrochemical energy storage in the marine environment with a highly-extensible paper-like seawater supercapacitor device

Harvesting energy from natural resources is of significant interest because of their abundance and sustainability. In particular, large-scale marine energy storage shows promising prospects because of the massive and diverse energy forms such as waves, tide and currents; however it is greatly hindered due to its complicated circumstances and intermittent nature. Storing and transporting locally generated energy has become a vital step for future sustainable energy supplies. Here, we proposed a highly-extensible paper-like all-in-one seawater supercapacitor constructed from a nanofiber-based film in operando towards electrochemical energy storage in the marine environment, which features lightweight and excellent mechanical properties with a typical thickness of about 100 mu m. The single supercapacitor cell shows a remarkable performance with an energy density of 6.6 mW h cm(-3) at a power density of 99.0 mW cm(-3), and exhibits a capacitance retention of 100% under different bending operations. Moreover, the large-scale extensibility of the all-in-one seawater supercapacitor cell was fully demonstrated with an optimized circuit design. The integrated device connected with multiple cells in series and parallel can successfully drive a motor with a voltage of 12 V and a power of 2.5 W for operation. It shows prospective applications for future large-scale distributed energy storage systems in the marine environment.

Automated summary

A paper-like seawater supercapacitor constructed from nanofiber-based film shows remarkable performance in electrochemical energy storage in the marine environment, with excellent mechanical properties and high capacitance retention under different bending operations. The integrated device can successfully drive a motor operation, indicating prospective applications for future large-scale distributed energy storage systems in the marine environment.