Mussel-Inspired Autonomously Self-Healable All-in-One Supercapacitor with Biocompatible Hydrogel
Helen H. Hsu, Yuqing Liu, Ying Wang, Bingyun Li, Gaoxing Luo, Malcolm Xing, Wen Zhong
Abstract
Flexible and self-healable supercapacitors (SCs) show great potential in developing smart energy storage devices for health care electronics, which call for the development of nontoxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable electronics based on natural materials. Most self-healable mechanisms need external stimuli and a long healing time, which limits their practical applications. Herein, we developed a mussel-inspired biocompatible SCs with autonomously self-healing capability through a hybrid system of gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), and tannic acid (TA). Mussel-inspired TA on GelMA-CNC hydrogels were optimized by concentrations and timings to evaluate stress, Young’s modulus, toughness, and compressive tests for further developing electrochemical performance on the hydrogel electrode with polyaniline (PANI) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO). This SC shows an impedance of 5.67 and 6.38 Ω after one healing processing. The specific capacitance, energy density, and power density of the SCs reached 1861.21 mF cm–3, 20.65 mW cm–3, and 595.59 mWh cm–3, and retained 96%, 100%, and 82%, respectively, of their original values after one cut-healing process. This study demonstrates remarkable potential in advanced smart and biocompatible energy storage devices.