Brushed-on flexible supercapacitor sheets using a nanocomposite of polyaniline and carbon nanotubes

A simple, two-step method for constructing flexible sheets of supercapacitors is described. The construction is based on painting a sheet of flexible plastic electrolyte with a composite material made of a conducting polymer and carbon nanotubes. The total capacitance of the supercapacitor consists of pseudocapacitance produced by the polymer and electrical double-layer capacitance produced by carbon nanotubes. Stacks of the capacitor sheets were used to light up a system of three light-emitting diodes. The method suggests an inexpensive and potentially high-throughput approach for making flexible supercapacitors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.