Supercapacitors have attracted great attention because of their high power density, long life cycle and high efficiency. They can be generally classified into two types: electrical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and pseudocapacitors. Compared with pseudocapacitors, EDLCs have a very fast charge/discharge rate, higher power density, higher coulombic efficiency and longer cycle life. Recently, in order to meet the requirements of portable and wearable electronics, supercapacitor development is moving towards flexible and stretchable solutions. This thesis presents the design, fabrication, performance testing and optimisation of flexible strip and fibre EDLCs. In this research, a sandwich structured strip EDLC was designed and manufactured. Experimental design was utilised to optimise the operation parameters of the EDLC in order to improve its capacity for energy storage. The flexibility of the strip EDLCs was studied extensively by mechanical tests under static and dynamic loading conditions, and the correlation between the electrochemical performance of the EDLCs and the mechanical testing process was investigated. Novel coaxial fibre EDLCs have also been studied and developed in this study. Fibre supercapacitors showed a good flexibility and weavability. The activated carbon produced by ball-milling method with optimum specific capacitance was mixed with commercial ink to produce active material to optimise the electrochemical performance of fibre EDLCs. The flexible EDLCs were applied into different appliances to demonstrate the stability of performance and the usability of EDLCs developed in this study. The electrical current and potential range can be altered by connecting multiple strip or fibre EDLCs in parallel or in series to meet the power and energy requirements. It has been proved that the flexible EDLCs developed have a great potential to be used as energy storage devices for smart electronics. This thesis makes original contributions to knowledge, including using an advanced test method to study the electrochemical performance of flexible supercapacitors under static and dynamic mechanical testing, investigation of the effect of key parameters in the manufacturing process on the performance of strip supercapacitors using experimental design method to optimise the supercapacitors’ performance, and optimisation of the performance of fibre supercapacitors by improving the structure and using a new active material with higher specific capacitance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:699271 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Zhang, Ruirong |
| Contributors | Xu, Y. ; Harrison, D. |
| Publisher | Brunel University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/13426 |
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