Carbon Cloth-based Hybrid Materials as Flexible Electrochemical Supercapacitors

Carbon cloths are the important materials composed of woven carbon fibres having the diameters in the range of 5-10 mu m. These materials have been investigated for innumerable applications such as supercapacitors (symmetric and asymmetric), batteries, solar cells, and catalysis. They are found to be the best supports as supercapacitive materials by providing high surface area, conductivity and flexibility compared to much widely used substrate materials such as Ni foam and 1D Fe nanowires. High conductivity and surface area of carbon cloths enable ion diffusion and cause decrease in charge transfer resistance, resulting in an increase of specific capacitance of specific electrodes. Several supercapacitive metal oxides, chalcogenides, phosphides, MXenes, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and conductive polymers have been incorporated into carbon cloths to improve their energy storage activity. Further modification of carbon cloth surface via oxidation, doping and by the growth of different nanostructures is also helpful as it increases the electroactive surface area necessary for electrochemical interaction. The present review mainly focuses on the development of flexible supercapacitors using carbon cloth-based substrate materials. Such flexible supercapacitors can be further utilized for an uninterrupted and steady power supply to wearable and portable electronic devices.