How Practical Are Fiber Supercapacitors for Wearable Energy Storage Applications?

Future wearable electronics and smart textiles face a major challenge in the development of energy storage devices that are high-performing while still being flexible, lightweight, and safe. Fiber supercapacitors are one of the most promising energy storage technologies for such applications due to their excellent electrochemical characteristics and mechanical flexibility. Over the past decade, researchers have put in tremendous effort and made significant progress on fiber supercapacitors. It is now the time to assess the outcomes to ensure that this kind of energy storage device will be practical for future wearable electronics and smart textiles. While the materials, fabrication methods, and energy storage performance of fiber supercapacitors have been summarized and evaluated in many previous publications, this review paper focuses on two practical questions: Are the reported devices providing sufficient energy and power densities to wearable electronics? Are the reported devices flexible and durable enough to be integrated into smart textiles? To answer the first question, we not only review the electrochemical performance of the reported fiber supercapacitors but also compare them to the power needs of a variety of commercial electronics. To answer the second question, we review the general approaches to assess the flexibility of wearable textiles and suggest standard methods to evaluate the mechanical flexibility and stability of fiber supercapacitors for future studies. Lastly, this article summarizes the challenges for the practical application of fiber supercapacitors and proposes possible solutions.

未来的可穿戴电子设备和智能纺织品面临着储能设备的发展，这些储能设备表现出色，同时仍然保持灵活，轻巧且安全。纤维超级电容器是此类应用最有希望的储能技术之一，由于其出色的电化学特性和机械柔韧性。在过去的十年中，研究人员付出了巨大的努力，并在纤维超级电容器上取得了重大进展。现在是时候评估结果，以确保这种能源存储设备对于将来的可穿戴电子设备和智能纺织品来说是实用的。尽管已经在许多以前的出版物中对纤维超级电容器的材料，制造方法和能源存储性能进行了总结和评估，但本综述的论文重点介绍了两个实际问题：报告的设备是否为可穿戴电子设备提供了足够的能量和功率密度？报告的设备是否灵活且耐用，可以集成到智能纺织品中？为了回答第一个问题，我们不仅回顾了报道的纤维超级电容器的电化学性能，而且还将它们与各种商业电子产品的功率需求进行了比较。为了回答第二个问题，我们回顾了评估可穿戴纺织品灵活性的一般方法，并提出了标准方法，以评估纤维超级电容器的机械灵活性和稳定性，以供将来的研究。最后，本文总结了纤维超级电容器实际应用的挑战，并提出了可能的解决方案。