Electrospinning is a versatile and viable technique for generating ultrathin fibers. Remarkable progress has been made with regard to the development of electrospinning methods and engineering of electrospun nanofibers to suit or enable various applications. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of electrospinning, including the principle, methods, materials, and applications. We begin with a brief introduction to the early history of electrospinning, followed by discussion of its principle and typical apparatus. We then discuss its renaissance over the past two decades as a powerful technology for the production of nanofibers with diversified compositions, structures, and properties. Afterward, we discuss the applications of electrospun nanofibers, including their use as "smart" mats, filtration membranes, catalytic supports, energy harvesting/conversion/storage components, and photonic and electronic devices, as well as biomedical scaffolds. We highlight the most relevant and recent advances related to the applications of electrospun nanofibers by focusing on the most representative examples. We also offer perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and new directions for future development. At the end, we discuss approaches to the scale-up production of electrospun nanofibers and briefly discuss various types of commercial products based on electrospun nanofibers that have found widespread use in our everyday life.

Electrospinning and Electrospun Nanofibers: Methods, Materials, and Applications

Ongoing technological advances in diverse fields including portable electronics, transportation, and green energy are often hindered by the insufficient capability of energy-storage devices By taking advantage of two different electrode materials, asymmetric supercapacitors can extend their operating voltage window beyond the thermodynamic decomposition voltage of electrolytes while enabling a solution to the energy storage limitations of symmetric supercapacitors This review provides comprehensive knowledge to this field We first look at the essential energy-storage mechanisms and performance evaluation criteria for asymmetric supercapacitors to understand the wide-ranging research conducted in this area Then we move to the recent progress made for the design and fabrication of electrode materials and the overall structure of asymmetric supercapacitors in different categories We also highlight several key scientific challenges and present our perspectives on enhancing the electrochemical performance of future asymmetric supercapacitors

Design and Mechanisms of Asymmetric Supercapacitors.

Flexible solid-state supercapacitors (FSSCs) are frontrunners in energy storage device technology and have attracted extensive attention owing to recent significant breakthroughs in modern wearable electronics In this study, we review the state-of-the-art advancements in FSSCs to provide new insights on mechanisms, emerging electrode materials, flexible gel electrolytes and novel cell designs The review begins with a brief introduction on the fundamental understanding of charge storage mechanisms based on the structural properties of electrode materials The next sections briefly summarise the latest progress in flexible electrodes (ie, freestanding and substrate-supported, including textile, paper, metal foil/wire and polymer-based substrates) and flexible gel electrolytes (ie, aqueous, organic, ionic liquids and redox-active gels) Subsequently, a comprehensive summary of FSSC cell designs introduces some emerging electrode materials, including MXenes, metal nitrides, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), polyoxometalates (POMs) and black phosphorus Some potential practical applications, such as the development of piezoelectric, photo-, shape-memory, self-healing, electrochromic and integrated sensor-supercapacitors are also discussed The final section highlights current challenges and future perspectives on research in this thriving field

Towards flexible solid-state supercapacitors for smart and wearable electronics

Recent advancements in supercapacitor technology

Supercapacitors have gained a lot of attention due to their unique features like high power, long cycle life and environment-friendly nature. They act as a link for energy-power difference between a traditional capacitor (having high power) and fuel cells/batteries (having high energy storage). In this perspective, a worldwide research has been reported to address this and rapid progress has been achieved in the advancement of fundamental as well as the applied aspects of supercapacitors. Here, a concise description of technologies and working principles of different materials utilized for supercapacitors has been provided. The main focus has been on materials like carbon-based nanomaterials, metal oxides, conducting polymers and their nanocomposites along with some novel materials like metal-organic frameworks, MXenes, metal nitrides, covalent organic frameworks and black phosphorus. The performance of nanocomposites has been analysed by parameters like energy, capacitance, power, cyclic performance and rate capability. Some of the latest supercapacitors such as electrochromic supercapacitor, battery-supercapacitor hybrid device, electrochemical flow capacitor, alternating current line filtering capacitor, micro-supercapacitor, photo-supercapacitor, thermally chargeable supercapacitor, self-healing supercapacitor, piezoelectric and shape memory supercapacitor have also been discussed. This review covers the up-to-date progress achieved in novel materials for supercapacitor electrodes. The latest fabricated symmetric/asymmetric supercapacitors have also been reported.

Review of supercapacitors: Materials and devices

Notably, many significant breakthroughs for a new generation of supercapacitors have been reported in recent years, related to theoretical understanding, material synthesis and device designs. Herein, we summarize the state-of-the-art progress toward mechanisms, new materials, and novel device designs for supercapacitors. Firstly, fundamental understanding of the mechanism is mainly focused on the relationship between the structural properties of electrode materials and their electrochemical performances based on some in situ characterization techniques and simulations. Secondly, some emerging electrode materials are discussed, including metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), MXenes, metal nitrides, black phosphorus, LaMnO3, and RbAg4I5/graphite. Thirdly, the device innovations for the next generation of supercapacitors are provided successively, mainly emphasizing flow supercapacitors, alternating current (AC) line-filtering supercapacitors, redox electrolyte enhanced supercapacitors, metal ion hybrid supercapacitors, micro-supercapacitors (fiber, plane and three-dimensional) and multifunctional supercapacitors including electrochromic supercapacitors, self-healing supercapacitors, piezoelectric supercapacitors, shape-memory supercapacitors, thermal self-protective supercapacitors, thermal self-charging supercapacitors, and photo self-charging supercapacitors. Finally, the future developments and key technical challenges are highlighted regarding further research in this thriving field.

Latest advances in supercapacitors: from new electrode materials to novel device designs.

Anode materials with high capacity for aqueous rechargeable lithium batteries (ARLBs) are very rarely reported. Here we found that a dual core–shell structured MWCNTs@S@PPy nanocomposite prepared by us shows excellent electrochemical performance. Its initial discharge capacity in a saturated LiAc aqueous electrolyte is very high, which is up to 481 mA h g−1 based on the weight of the composite and 879 mA h g−1 based on the sulfur content. It shows excellent rate capability. When nanotube LiMn2O4 is used as a cathode, the assembled ARLB can deliver an energy density of 110 Wh kg−1 based on two electrodes and show excellent cycling. These results show great promise for the practical application of ARLBs.

A high-capacity dual core–shell structured MWCNTs@S@PPy nanocomposite anode for advanced aqueous rechargeable lithium batteries

In order to obtain a safe, reliable, long-lived battery system without use of flammable, volatile, and relatively unstable organic liquid-based electrolytes, lithium garnet oxides with formulas Li7-xLa3Zr2-xTa x O12 (x=0.2-1) were synthesized by the solid state reaction method. Single cubic phases were observed in the composition x range between 0.2 and 1. The lattice parameters decreased with the addition of Ta due to the smaller ionic radius of Ta5+ compared with that of Zr4+, following the Vegard’s law. The total conductivity of the x = 0.3 composition is 6.03×10-5 S·cm-1 at room temperature with an activation energy of 0.30 eV. These lithium garnet oxides exhibit lithium ionic transport that is relevant to lithium battery application.

Synthesis of lithium garnet oxides of the compositions series Li7-xLa3Zr2-xTa x O12

The disclosure relates to a hybrid aqueous rechargeable battery, wherein the battery comprises a positive electrode and a negative electrode, and wherein the positive electrode and the negative electrode are in aqueous electrolytes with different pHs respectively. The hybrid aqueous rechargeable battery has a working voltage at least 0.6 V higher than the conventional aqueous lithium batteries and a theoretical energy density at least 60 Wh/kg higher. The hybrid aqueous rechargeable battery can be used for storage and discharge of electricity, etc.

Xiongwei Wu

Papers

Latest advances in supercapacitors: from new electrode materials to novel device designs.

A high-capacity dual core–shell structured MWCNTs@S@PPy nanocomposite anode for advanced aqueous rechargeable lithium batteries

Synthesis of lithium garnet oxides of the compositions series Li7-xLa3Zr2-xTa x O12

Hybrid aqueous rechargeable battery