Robust deposition of conductive polymer on waste textile assisted by vapor polymerization for flexible zinc-ion hybrid capacitor

Flexible energy storage devices have been applied more and more in recent years, such as wearable electronic products, folding mobile phones, and so on. In this study, through the use of waste face mask (WFM) unique three-layer structure, designed a zinc-ion hybrid capacitor (ZHC), the outer layer of WFM through the vapor phase polymerization method on the surface of WFM uniformly covered with a layer of polypyrrole (PPy), to enhance the conductivity of the material and improve the surface topography. The loading of PPy is then increased by electrodeposition and dopants are introduced to further improve its electrochemical properties. It improves the problem that the conductivity of the active material becomes poor with increasing polymerization time and cannot continue to grow so that the electrochemical and mechanical properties of the electrode can be effectively strengthened. The other pole also through the way of electrodeposition on the surface of Zn deposition. ZHC is assembled using ZnSO 4 /gelatin as the electrolyte and WFM inner layer as the separator. The assembled ZHC has excellent electrochemical performance, with a mass-specific capacity of 121.5 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 and an energy density of 97.6 Wh kg −1 at 0.1 A g −1 . In addition, the capacity retention rate remains 77.1% after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. The assembled ZHC allows a small fan or digital watch to function properly. These results indicate that the prepared ZHC can be widely used in reality.