Structure design and assembly mode of carbon nanotube-based flexible electrode materials and flexible supercapacitors

Portable and wearable electronics require increasingly efficient energy storage devices, making flexible supercapacitors (FSCs) a promising option due to their superior mechanical properties, high power density, and long cycle life. As a highly conductive, mechanically robust and nanoscale tubular material with large specific surface area, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are unparalleled in the field of flexible electrodes. This paper summarized the surface modification technology of CNTs and the structural design and optimization of CNT-based flexible electrodes. The design of CNTs as active materials growing in situ in other flexible substrates and CNTs as flexible skeleton to grow other active materials was reviewed, and the effects of composition and structure on the electrochemical and mechanical properties of flexible electrode materials were emphatically discussed. The structure design and assembly modes of FSCs (including 1D linear FSCs, 2D planar FSCs and 3D FSCs) were systematically presented. The current challenges and future development of the CNTs flexible electrodes and the FSCs composed of CNT composite flexible electrodes were discussed.