Advanced graphene fiber based wearable supercapacitor

可穿戴电子产品是技术创新的一个令人兴奋的新领域，它允许我们将便携式设备与身体连接起来，即将推出的Apple Watch就是这一新兴领域的例证。由于在健康监测、便携式显示器/传感器和高性能运动服装方面具有实际意义，阻碍可穿戴电子产品在日常社会变得无处不在的主要限制是缺乏灵活和轻便的能量存储设备。超级电容器是这些应用的一种理想的能量存储手段，与电池技术相比具有许多优点，因为它们不含有毒或易燃成分，具有极长的工作寿命。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。我们解决这一问题的途径是利用皮S实验室最近推出的石墨烯纤维材料来设计可穿戴超级电容器，这种材料兼具柔性、高比表面积和电子导电性能的三重功能。将后续的石墨烯纤维和复合纤维包装成纤维型超级电容器或编织包装成纤维型超级电容器。通过这些新颖的设计和性能改进，生产的纤维型或纤维型超级电容器将是灵活的，并易于定制为任何可穿戴的形状。预计这项拟议的研究结果将为可穿戴电子设备和医疗设备所需的电力设备提供潜在的突破。拟议的研究成果不仅将产生高能量密度的可穿戴超级电容器，而且还将扩大和提高加拿大相关石墨烯生产、能源和电子行业的能力，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高素质人员(HQP)，他们将在加拿大和全球的下一代技术开发中发挥关键作用。

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.