Carbon Nanotube Interconnected Polypyrrole@ E-MXene Organic-Inorganic Hybrids for Interdigitated In-Plane Supercapacitor Applications

In recent times, there has been a growing focus on developing flexible electrochemical energy storage devices to address the booming demands of wearable electronics. Supercapacitors (SC) are prized among the electrochemical energy storage devices for their remarkable specific capacitance and power density. Conventional flexible SCs predominantly rely on various carbon based materials as electrodes and current collectors for these applications. Despite this, a novel approach is adopted to fabricate a flexible supercapacitor from laser-induced graphene with a ternary hybrid of polypyrrole with Mxene and carbon nanotube (PPy@E-MXene/f-CNT) as an electrode material. The fabricated in-plane supercapacitor achieves an outstanding specific capacitance of 66.6 mF cm⁻² (83.25 mFg⁻¹) with an energy density of 4.5 µWh cm⁻² (with a power density of 0.03 mW cm⁻²). This innovative approach presents a promising avenue for developing flexible and wearable energy storage solutions. Further, Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations are carried out to support the experimental findings and elucidate the structural, electronic, and electrochemical properties of the hybrid systems.