Carboxymethyl cellulose assisted PEDOT in polyacrylamide hydrogel for high performance supercapacitors and self-powered sensing system

In this paper, we study the role of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a template for helping poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) uniformly disperse into polyacrylamide (PAAM) hydrogel scaffold. The presence of a large amount of hydrogen bonds and chain entanglements enabled excellent mechanical properties with great stretchability and resilience. With the optimum mass loading of PEDOT (9.75 mg/cm(2)), a sandwiched configuration of flexible supercapacitor based on the CMC-PEDOT/PAAM hydrogel can deliver the highest specific capacitance of 269 mF/cm(2), a maximum energy density of 23.93 mu Wh/cm(2) at a power density of 400 mu W/cm(2) and remained 16.18 mu Wh/cm(2) at a power density of 3200 mu W/cm(2), as well as enhanced cycle stability with 88% retention after 5000 cycles. In addition, such device can withstand severely bending and compressing deformations and properly operate at extreme temperatures (-40 similar to 90 degrees C) with excellent capacitance property. What's more, the excellent conductivity of the CMC-PEDOT/PAAM hydrogel contributed to outstanding strain sensing performances. When the supercapacitor was used to power the hydrogel strain sensor, the obtained selfpowered sensing system is capable of monitoring physiological signals accurately. The multifunctional performance of the CMC-PEDOT/PAAM hydrogel could be potentially used in flexible electronic devices.

Automated summary

This paper studies the use of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a template to help the uniform dispersion of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) into polyacrylamide (PAAM) hydrogel scaffold. The CMC-PEDOT/PAAM hydrogel shows excellent mechanical properties, capacitance property and strain sensing performance, making it a potential candidate for flexible electronic devices.