Preparation and characterization of a flexible lithium ion electrode based on carbonized cotton fabric

In order to prepare flexible electrode with excellent performance, cotton fabric was used as the substrate in this study. The surface of cotton fabric was modified by polydopamine(PDA). The cotton fabric was then carbonized. Finally, a three-dimensional porous flexible electrode for carbonized cotton fabric was prepared. The maximum stress of the flexible electrode is 0.5 MPa. With the increase of carbonization temperature, the specific capacity of flexible electrode increases gradually. The specific capacity of flexible electrode reaches 282 mAh.g−1 at 0.1c charge/discharge rate. The specific capacity of flexible electrode reaches 200 mAh.g−1 at 5C charge/discharge rate. The specific capacity retention rate of the flexible electrode is above 95% when the cycle is 100 weeks at 0.1 c and 600 weeks at 5C. CV test results show that with the decrease of scanning rate, the more stable the cyclic performance of flexible electrode is, the better the reversibility of Li+ stripping/embedding is. The conductivity of the flexible electrode increases with the increase of carbonization temperature. The surface resistance and AC impedance of the flexible electrode are reduced. When the carbonization temperature is 1000°C, the surface resistance of the flexible electrode is 2 Ω.−1, and the AC impedance is 5 Ω.