| dc.description.abstract |
<p>The development of electronic textiles, which have many potential healthcare and
consumer applications, is currently limited by a lack of energy storage that can be
effectively incorporated into such devices while having sufficient energy density,
power density, and durability to perform well. The overall goal of this work was to
improve the energy density and potential for use in electronic textile applications
of a nanostructured composite of few-walled carbon nanotubes, manganese oxide, and
reduced graphene oxide. Two approaches towards improving the desired properties by
controlling the macroscopic structure of the composite were pursued: one, to make
fiber or wire-shaped electrodes via wet-spinning in aqueous chitosan solutions (10%
acetic acid), and the other, to make composite films with controlled porous structures
using nitrocellulose as a sacrificial filler material. Both approaches yielded the
desired macroscopic structures. The composite fibers were non-conductive due to the
insulating nature of manganese oxide and its positioning on the surface of the fibers.
Composite fibers of few-walled carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide made by
the same method were found to have good volumetric capacity, rate capability, stability
and flexibility. Nonintuitively, electrochemical performance of composite films declined
with increasing porosity due to a decrease in conductivity, highlighting the importance
of balancing the interplay between properties important to device performance when
designing controlled structures of complex materials.</p>
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