Flexible, breathable and cuttable zinc-air battery textile towards real wearable energy supply clothing

Abstract

The permeable skin electronics have recently emerged as a frontier research direction with the achievement of permeable sensors, organic transistors, and displays. However, due to the complex device structure imposed by the sophisticated electrochemical catalytic reactions, the development of breathable high-energy zinc-air batteries still remains a challenge. Herein, we successfully develop a flexible and breathable zinc-air battery based on the polypropylene nonwoven fabric (PPNWF) towards real wearable energy supply clothing. All of the battery functional components including the catalyst cathode, zinc anode, gel electrolyte and packing encapsulation are constructed on PPNWF through combined technique of plasma etching, dip-coating, electroplating and photocuring. Balance between sufficient loading of active electrochemical materials for high battery performance and reservation of excellent fabric network for good air permeability of the whole battery device is achieved. The developed zin-air battery exhibits a high open-circuit voltage of 1.44 V, a high maximum power density of 136 mW cm⁻², a large specific capacity of 806 mAh g⁻¹ at 2 mA cm⁻², and a long cycling lifetime of up to 200 h. Meanwhile, the integrated textile zinc-air battery with both breathability and waterproof property can be cut and sewed into fabric clothing in our daily life such as wristband and shirt with customized shapes and modules, capable of offering stable electric energy to power portable electronics such as digital display and phone.