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A highly stretchable supercapacitor is developed from a family of nitrogen‐doped core‐sheath carbon nanotube array as an elastic electrode. It displays a specific capacitance of 30.8 mF cm−2 with the strain up to 400%; the specific capacitance can be maintained by 96% after stretching for 1000 cycles. The unique 3D cross‐linked structure in the elastic electrode contributes to the high property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy storage devices, such as lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, are required for the modern electronics. However, the intrinsic characteristics of low power densities in batteries and low energy densities in supercapacitors have limited their applications. How to simultaneously realize high energy and power densities in one device remains a challenge. Herein a fiber-shaped hybrid energy-storage device (FESD) formed by twisting three carbon nanotube hybrid fibers demonstrates both high energy and power densities. For the FESD, the energy density (50 mWh cm−3 or 90 Wh kg−1) many times higher than for other forms of supercapacitors and approximately 3 times that of thin-film batteries; the power density (1 W cm−3 or 5970 W kg−1) is approximately 140 times of thin-film lithium-ion battery. The FESD is flexible, weaveable and wearable, which offers promising advantages in the modern electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of wearable electronics and optoelectronics requires the development of devices that are not only highly flexible but can also be woven into textiles to offer a truly integrated solution. Here, we report a colour-tunable, weavable fibre-shaped polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell (PLEC). The fibre-shaped PLEC is fabricated using all-solution-based processes that can be scaled up for practical applications. The design has a coaxial structure comprising a modified metal wire cathode and a conducting aligned carbon nanotube sheet anode, with an electroluminescent polymer layer sandwiched between them. The fibre shape offers unique and promising advantages. For example, the luminance is independent of viewing angle, the fibre-shaped PLEC can provide a variety of different and tunable colours, it is lightweight, flexible and wearable, and it can potentially be woven into light-emitting clothes for the creation of smart fabrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of lightweight, flexible and stretchable power systems for modern electronic devices without using elastic polymer substrates is critical but remains challenging. We have developed a new and general strategy to produce both freestanding, stretchable, and flexible supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries with remarkable electrochemical properties by designing novel carbon nanotube fiber springs as electrodes. These springlike electrodes can be stretched by over 300 %. In addition, the supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries have a flexible fiber shape that enables promising applications in electronic textiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An all-solid-state, lightweight, flexible, and wearable polymer solar cell (PSC) textile with reasonable photovoltaic performance has been developed. A metal textile electrode made from micrometer-sized metal wires is used as the cathode, and the surfaces of the metal wires are dip-coated with the photoactive layers. Two ultrathin, transparent, and aligned carbon nanotube sheets that exhibit remarkable electronic and mechanical properties were coated onto the modified metal textile at both sides as the anode to produce the desired PSC textile. Because of the designed sandwich structure, the PSC textile displays the same energy conversion efficiencies regardless of which side it is irradiated from. As expected, the PSC textiles are highly flexible, and their energy conversion efficiencies varied by less than 3 % after bending for more than 200 cycles. The PSC textile shows an areal density (5.9 mgcm-2) that is lower than that of flexible filmbased PSCs (31.3 mgcm-2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A stretchable wire-shaped lithium-ion battery is produced from two aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube/lithium oxide composite yarns as the anode and cathode without extra current collectors and binders. The two composite yarns can be well paired to obtain a safe battery with superior electrochemical properties, such as energy densities of 27 Wh kg−1 or 17.7 mWh cm−3 and power densities of 880 W kg−1 or 0.56 W cm−3, which are an order of magnitude higher than the densities reported for lithium thin-film batteries. These wire-shaped batteries are flexible and light, and 97 % of their capacity was maintained after 1000 bending cycles. They are also very elastic as they are based on a modified spring structure, and 84 % of the capacity was maintained after stretching for 200 cycles at a strain of 100 %. Furthermore, these novel wire-shaped batteries have been woven into lightweight, flexible, and stretchable battery textiles, which reveals possible large-scale applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making sense: A novel polyacetylene composite material with incorporated aligned carbon nanotubes shows rapid changes in both fluorescent intensity and color appearance in response to applied electric currents, and these electrochromatic transitions remain reversible even after a thousand cycles. The composite material is anticipated to be suitable for various other sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A general method had been developed to prepare highly aligned carbon nanotube/polymer composite films, which represented the first composite material with an anisotropic tribological property on the surface. The friction coefficient in the transverse direction was about 2 times of that of longitudinal direction. In addition, the aligned nanotubes provided the composite film with excellent electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. This work also presented an efficient paradigm to synthesize friction materials with an anisotropic tribological behavior by introduction of one-dimensional nanostructures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]