Electrochemical Properties of Iron Oxide Decorated Activated Carbon Cloth as a Binder-Free Flexible Electrode

The oxidation and deposition of transition metal oxides on porous carbon precursor materials strongly influence the final performance of supercapacitor electrodes. Thus, the influence of oxidation time combined with simple iron oxide deposition was evaluated on a flexible carbon fiber cloth electrode oxidized at three different times and exposed to spontaneous iron oxide deposition. The 140 minutes oxidation time increased by two times the iron quantity deposited on the activated carbon fiber cloth (ACC) and also increased the crystallinity of the carbon matrix. The iron oxide deposition improved the contribution of anions to store energy, enhancing the pseudocapacitive effect in the samples. The optimal oxidation time of the ACC140_Fe sample with the greater iron oxide deposition achieves 116.8 F g-1. The binder-free flexible electrode presents a successful design through pre-oxidation and spontaneous iron oxide deposition on the carbon matrix without expensive and environmentally unfriendly chemical treatments.