A foldable, extra lightweight, flexible electrode: Chopped carbon fiber paper for growth of three-dimensional copper(II) hydroxide nanorod arrays

Flexible all-solid-state supercapacitors (FASSCs) have attracted much attention as power supplies for portable and wearable electronic products. Herein, we report the fabrication of a foldable, extra lightweight, flexible chopped carbon fiber paper (CFP) with a porous network structure prepared via wet-mold papermaking that can serve as a conductive substrate. The conductivity and pseudocapacitance of the electrode were improved by controlling the growth of 3D Cu(OH)2 nanorod arrays on CFP substrate. The Cu(OH)2@CFP electrode has a high specific capacitance of 421.8 mF cm−2 at a current density of 0.5 mA cm−2 with capacitance retention of 82.98% at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 after 5000 charge-discharge cycles. The FASSC manifested not only a large capacitance of 196.1 mF cm−2 at 2 mA cm−2, as well as energy and power densities of 6.97 × 10−2 mWh cm−2 and 1.6 mW cm−2, respectively, but also excellent stability of 80.3% over 5000 cycles at 5 mA cm−2. In addition, we confirmed that the FASSC has a large bending angle and can be twisted into various shapes, thereby indicating its applicability in portable and wearable electronic devices. [Display omitted] •The folding, ultra-light carbon fiber paper was prepared by Papermaking wet molding.•3D Cu(OH)2 nanorod arrays were controlled to grow on CFP substrate.•Cu(OH)2@CFP electrode exhibits prominent flexibility and capacitive properties.•The commercial LED can be lit in series by two FASSC devices for up to 6 min.