Fabrication of Conducting Polymer Microfiber-based Mesh Structures and Application to Ion-based Energy Storage Devices

Abstract

Conducting polymer (CP)-based electrodes have drawn much attention in the fields of bioelectronics and ion storage devices due to high gravimetric capacitances enhanced by their ion-permeability and electrochemical activities. However, CP-based film-type electrode has shown the degradation of electrochemical performance when the thickness increases over micro-meter scale due to difficult ion penetration into entire films. Herein, we fabricated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) microfiber-based mesh structures and it was applied to ion-based energy storage electrodes with good electrical conductivity and ion permeability. The microfiber-based mesh structures were fabricated by simple wet-spinning, cutting, and self-bonding, and the resultant mesh network with overall thickness over tens of micrometer showed volumetric capacitance without apparent performance degradation and stable electrochemical charging/discharging behavior. In addition, the crystallization and self-bonding properties of the PEDOT:PSS microfibers constituting the mesh were also studied.