Fabrication of polyaniline/copper sulfide/poly(ethylene terephthalate) thread electrode for flexible fiber-shaped supercapacitors

Fiber-shaped supercapacitors have drawn much attention for their great potential application in future portable and wearable electronics because of their outstanding flexibility, tiny volume, and good deformability. In this work, commercial poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) thread was successfully converted into an electrically conductive and electrochemically active thread by introducing copper sulfide (CuS) and polyaniline (PANI) via simple chemical bath deposition and electrochemical deposition. The obtained PANI/CuS/PET electrode combined all the advantages of PET, CuS, and PANI, showing an excellent physical and electrochemical performance. The fiber-shaped supercapacitor exhibits a high specific capacitance of 29 mF cm(-2) (116 mF cm(-2) for a single electrode) and good cycling stability with 93.1% retention after 1000 cycles. With the simple preparation method and low-cost raw materials, this strategy provides a reference for the fabrication of portable/wearable energy storage devices. (c) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46769.