Electrodeposition of Co(OH)2 Improving Carbonized Melamine Foam Performance for Compressible Supercapacitor Application

In the development of commercial wearable electronic devices with improved mechanical and electrochemical performance, flexible supercapacitors can retain their original properties even under and during recovery from various mechanical deformations and have caused considerable attention because of their outstanding mechanical and electrochemical performance. In this work, a carbonized melamine foam /Co­(OH)2 (CMF/Co­(OH)2) compressible electrode material with a three-dimensional interconnected network structure was prepared by high-temperature carbonization and electrochemical deposition for developing a flexible supercapacitor. In the CMF/Co­(OH)2 compressible material, Co­(OH)2 nanosheets were vertically deposited on the CMF fiber surface with significantly increased specific surface area, illustrating a volumetric capacitance of 2.51 F/cm3 at 5 mA/cm3. Particularly, the CMF/Co­(OH)2 material delivers a remarkable compression performance with 97.80% volumetric capacitance retention in 60% compression strain. Moreover, we assembled an asymmetrical all-solid compressible supercapacitor based on CMF/Co­(OH)2 and surveyed its electrochemical performance to investigate the applicability of the compressible electrode material, and it has been demonstrated that two devices in series can drive a red light-emitting diode and work properly even under different compressions. These wonderful electrochemical and compression performances enable CMF/Co­(OH)2 to be a favorable compressible electrode material in flexible supercapacitors, expanding the application fields of flexible supercapacitors.