Flexible supercapacitors of biomass-based activated carbon-polypyrrole on eggshell membranes

The quest to develop flexible membrane-like supercapacitors to be applied in advanced electronic devices with a flexible structure is important for the modern world. In this study, we developed biomass-based supercapacitors by depositing activated carbon on an eggshell membrane and subsequently coating these with polypyrrole in a two-step procedure. The competition between the electrical double layer capacitance (EDLC) from activated carbon and the pseudocapacitance (PC) for the hybrid device is controlled by varying the amount of polypyrrole (PC component) in a time-dependent polymerization process. An areal capacitance of 172.5 mF cm−2, a corresponding energy density of 4.73 W h kg−1, and power density of 320.8 W kg−1, with a 60% retention even after 1000 cycles were obtained for samples prepared with the polymerization of polypyrrole on the activated carbon (incorporation of an active layer of 3.18 mg cm−2).