Advanced graphene fiber based wearable supercapacitor

可穿戴电子产品是一个令人兴奋的技术创新新领域，它使我们能够将便携式设备与我们的身体连接起来，即将推出的苹果手表就是这一新兴领域的例证。随着健康监测、便携式显示器/传感器和高性能运动服的实际应用，阻碍可穿戴电子产品在日常社会中无处不在的主要限制是缺乏灵活轻便的能量存储设备。超级电容器是这些应用的理想能量存储手段，与电池技术相比，超级电容器具有许多优点，因为它们不含有毒或易燃成分，具有极长的使用寿命。与可穿戴超级电容器相关的主要技术障碍是缺乏高能量密度和柔性电极材料。我们解决这个问题的方法是使用PI实验室最近生产的石墨烯纤维材料设计可穿戴超级电容器，同时具有柔性，高表面积和电子导电性的三重功能。后续的石墨烯纤维和复合纤维将被封装制成纤维型超级电容器或编织封装制成织物型超级电容器。通过这些新颖的设计和性能改进，所生产的纤维型或织物型超级电容器将具有柔性，易于定制任何可穿戴的形状。预计该研究成果将为可穿戴电子产品和医疗保健设备所需的功率器件提供潜在的突破。该研究成果不仅将产生高能量密度可穿戴超级电容器，还将扩大和提高加拿大相关石墨烯生产、能源和电子工业的能力，从而为加拿大知识型经济的发展做出贡献。拟议的活动还旨在培训在加拿大和全球下一代技术发展中至关重要的高素质人才（HQP）。

Wearable electronics are an exciting new area of technological innovation that allows us to interface portable devices with our bodies, with the soon to be launched Apple watch exemplifying this emerging field. With practical implications in health monitoring, portable displays/sensors and high-performance sportswear, the primary limitation hindering wearable electronics becoming ubiquitous in everyday society is the lack of flexible and lightweight energy storage devices. Supercapacitors are an ideal energy storage means for these applications, providing numerous benefits over battery technologies in that they do not contain toxic or flammable components, have extremely long operational lifetimes. Major technical barriers associated with wearable supercapacitors are the lack of high energy density and flexible electrode materials. Our approach to solving the problem is to design wearable supercapacitors using graphene fiber materials recently produced in the PI' s lab which concurrently possesses the tri-functions with flexible, high surface area and electronic conductivity properties. The subsequent graphene fiber and composite fiber will be packaged to make fiber-type supercapacitor or weaved and packaged to make fabric-type supercapacitor. Through these novel design and performance improvement, the produced fiber-type or fabric-type supercapacitor will be flexible and prone to tailor to any wearable shape. It is expected that the results of the proposed research will provide a potential breakthrough of power device needed in wearable electronics and healthcare devices. The results of the proposed research will not only come out with high energy density wearable supercapacitors, but also expand and enhance the capability of relevant Canadian graphene production, energy and electronic industries thus contributing to the development of a knowledge-based Canadian economy. The proposed activity also aims to train highly qualified personnel (HQP) who will be critical in the development of next generation technologies in Canada and globally.