The integration of SnO2 dots and porous carbon nanofibers for flexible supercapacitors.

With the rapid development of lightweight, portable, and even wearable electronics, there is an increasing demand for flexible supercapacitors with excellent electrochemical performance. Here, we present the design and preparation of a novel architecture with SnO 2 dots uniformly confined on the activated porous carbon nanofibers (CNFs) using copper and its oxides as the hard templates for generating holes. Not only does the single electrode itself with a certain loading mass of SnO 2 show larger specific capacitance, better rate capability, and higher conductivity than the bare CNFs and activated CNFs/SnO 2 electrodes, but the assembled quasi-solid-state symmetric supercapacitor also exhibits good flexibility as well as superior electrochemical property with satisfactory energy density and favorable cycling stability, which indicates the great potential for practical applications. This work may provide a versatile and low-cost strategy to construct carbon/metal oxide nanostructures with robust binding force at the interface for adhesive-free supercapacitors. A novel architecture with SnO 2 dots tightly and uniformly confined on the activated porous carbon nanofibers was prepared using copper and its oxides as the hard templates for generating holes, which can be directly applied as the binder-free electrode for high-performance supercapacitor with excellent flexibility. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]