BaTiO3/PVDF-TrFE skeleton separators with superior ion conductivity and mechanical property integrated for flexible seconds self-charging supercapacitors

Flexible, lightweight and self-charging power units offer a promising solution to supply sustainable and clean electric energy for various electronic devices. Herein, a type of self-charging composite separator based on the poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) interconnected skeleton and doped BaTiO 3 piezo-nanoparticles is advocated, which can be employed to fabricate flexible self-charging supercapacitors (SCs) assembled with electrodes and applied to efficiently harvest and storage ubiquitous mechanical energy as electrochemical energy. The high-performance separator with interconnected pores not only exhibits enhanced piezoelectric property ( V oc  = 190 V, I sc  = 58.10 μA), but also possesses superior ionic conductivity of 2.01 × 10 −3  S/cm and mechanical property (breaking tensile stress of 12.14 MPa). Based on the BaTiO 3 /PVDF-TrFE separators, the self-charging supercapacitors can rapidly self-charge from 110 mV to 748 mV in 8.2 s, which also exhibits admirable specific capacitance (36.36 F/g) and superior cycling stability (capacitance retention of 98% after 10,000 cycles). Possessing outstanding electrochemical performance and mechanical property, the innovational separator with superior feasibility and potential application presented here improves a promising versatile electrolyte design strategy for highly-integrated sustainable self-charging power supply.