Smart Science Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.

107-115(2014)

http://dx.doi.org/10.6493/SmartSci.2014.255

Fabrication and Characterisation of Flexible Coaxial Thin

Thread Supercapacitors
Fulian Qiu1,*, David Harrison1,*, John Fyson1 and Darren Southee2
1Department

of Design, Brunel University, London, United Kingdom

school, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
* Corresponding Author / E-mail: fulian.qiu@brunel.ac.uk, David.harrison@brunel.ac.uk
2Design

KEYWORDS : Supercapacitor, Coaxial thread, Energy storage, Smart electronics, Semi-automatic processing, Carbon ink

Flexible coaxial thin thread supercapacitors were fabricated semi-automatically using a dip coating method. A typical coaxial
thin thread supercapacitor of a length of 70 cm demonstrated a specific length capacitance of 0.3 mF cm-1 (11.2 mF cm-2 and
2.18 F cm-3) at 5 mV s-1, the device exhibited good electrochemical performance with a high volume energy density of 0.22
mWh cm-3 at a power density of 22 mW cm-3. Thread supercapacitors were assembled in series and parallel combinations, the
accepted models for series and parallel circuit combinations were obeyed for two coaxial thread supercapacitors. The thread
shows high flexibility and uniformity of specific length capacitance, one integrated with a commercial solar cell could be
charged and power a LED. The process is simple, robust and easy to scale up to make unlimited length thread supercapacitors
for numerous miniaturized and flexible electronic applications.
Manuscript received: May 11, 2014 / Accepted: June 12, 2014

1. Introduction

coated carbon microfiber as core active material has been reported by

Le [15]. A coaxial single fibre supercapacitor made manually has also
been reported in a previous paper by Harrison et al. It has shown a
good stability and flexibility [17]. In this current paper we move on to
describe ways of making the fibre, and report a series of further
electrochemical studies on longer thin threads to characterise their
performance. We report the development of a purpose-built semiautomatic dip coating setup to facilitate uniform coatings for the
fabrication of long coaxial thread supercapacitors. This is a difficult
procedure to control manually. A range of long coaxial thread
supercapacitors were prepared using this equipment. The charge
storage properties and dynamic stability of a coaxial thread
supercapacitor were fully characterised by cyclic voltammetry,
galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy. This report also focuses on the potential of the device to
be an alternative power source to rechargeable batteries, by exploring
its power density, combination circuits, capacitance uniformity with
length, and integration with electronics, which have not been
investigated in ref [17]. Power density verses energy density, the
combination circuits (series and parallel) of two coaxial thread
supercapacitors and length dependent capacitance were investigated.
Integration with a commercial solar powered LED was presented.
This kind of coaxial thin thread supercapacitor is flexible and has a
number of potential applications as a wearable power source.

The incorporation of energy storage devices into fabrics has the

potential to offer significant advances. With rapid development of
wearable electronic devices [1-4], wearable, miniaturised, compact,
flexible, and lightweight power sources including batteries, solar
cells and supercapacitors [5, 6] are in high demand. For smart
textiles, the ideal energy storage devices would be weaveable,
knittable and embeddable in order to sustain their functionality
during body movement and on curved surfaces.
As one type of power storage device, supercapacitors have many
advantages over rechargeable batteries as they have higher power
densities, are low cost, easily fabricated, have a long life time, easily
recharged maybe non-toxic and are safe to use [7-9]. Many studies on
supercapacitors have focused on applications in electric vehicles,
hybrid electric vehicles and backup energy sources [10]. Recently,
there has been an emerging interest in fibre supercapacitors, including
those using Chinese ink coated nickel wires, a carbon nanotube-Ti
nanotube fibre supercapacitor integrated with a photoelectrical fibre,
twisted carbon nanotube fibres supercapacitor and two-polymer yarn
supercapacitors using polyaniline nanowire arrays; for all these fibre
devices, only two short fibres were arranged either helically or in
parallel for electrochemical studies [11-15]. In addition,
microsupercapacitors for microelectronic applications have also been
reported [16].
In order to make a simpler more compact device, a coaxial design
might be used. A coaxial fibre supercapacitor using a carbon nanotube

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2. Experimental

m, 120 m, 140 m, 200 m and 300 m (in diameter) were created

for the inner ink layer, the gel electrolyte, the outer ink coating, the
silver paint layer and the PVA gel protective layer respectively.

2.1 Materials
A carbon-based Chinese ink (Li-Tinggui) was obtained from an
art shop, which was comprised of 50 nm diameter carbon
nanoparticles, more details can be found in the coaxial fibre
supercapacitor study [17]. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, MW 146,000
186,000, 99+% hydrolysed) and anhydrous phosphoric acid were
purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and used without further purification.
Silver paint was purchased from RS Components Ltd. and a
stainless steel wire (AISI304L Fe/Cr18/Ni10, 50 m in diameter) and
a copper wire (50 m in diameter) both from Advent Research
Materials.

2.2 Preparation of PVA gel electrolyte

PVA powder was dissolved into water (Milli-Q, resistivity, 18.2
M cm at 25C) at 85C with magnetic stirring. A transparent
solution was achieved when PVA particles were fully dissolved.
Phosphoric acid gel electrolyte solution was prepared by dissolving
the required amount of anhydrous phosphoric acid into the PVA
solution [18].

Fig. 2 Schematic of the purpose-built dip coating setup

2.3 Fabrication of a coaxial thin thread supercapacitor (CTSC)

Fig. 1 shows the schematic structure of a CTSC. It consists of a
50 m stainless steel core wire, three active layers, one silver paint
layer and one PVA polymer protective layer. The core wire and silver
paint layer serve as the two current collectors. Three active layers
include two carbon Chinese ink layers and one gel layer between
them. The two ink layers serve as working electrodes for storing
charges; the gel layer serves as a separator and ion conductor.

Fig. 1 Schematic structure of a CTSC

A bobbin wound with the stainless steel wire was fixed onto the
motor and a small weight was clamped to the bottom end of the core
wire, which keeps the wire straight in an up-down alignment. The
motor has a two-direction controller which allows the load to move
up or down. When the coating process was performed, a drop of
coating liquid (or slurry) was applied to the centre of the disc such
that the wire moves through it. During the movement of the core wire
it dragged the liquid with it, the solvent was vapourised and a coating
layer was formed on the wire. Five layers were coated onto the core
sequentially. The thickness of each coating layer can be adjusted by
varying the time the wire is in the liquid drop which is controlled by
motor speed (a motor speed of 0.5 m minute-1 was used throughout
these experiments) and also by coating a number of times through
each drop. The wait time interval is 5 minutes for ink and gel
electrolyte coatings which is sufficient for the coating to dry enough
such that it does not dissolve in the following dip. 10/4/4 times
coatings were performed for three active layers respectively; two
coatings were used for both silver paint layer current collector and
PVA protective layers. In order to minimize the interface between the
electrolyte in 2nd ink layer and silver paint outer current collector, 2nd
ink layer was dried in air for two hours before silver paint coating was
conducted. Silver paint layer was left in air for 12 hours to fully cure.
Chinese ink, 10 wt% H3PO4 / 8.3 wt% PVA gel electrolyte, silver
paint and 10 wt% PVA gel solution were used throughout experiment
for each layer coating respectively. The core stainless steel wire and a
50 m copper wire attached to the silver collector were used for
electrochemical measurements.

2.4 Microscopic characterization

Fig. 2 shows a purpose-built dip coating setup for the preparation

of long coaxial thin thread supercapacitors. This setup consists of
multi-speed controlled motor and Perspex discs of a radius of 1.5 cm.
In the centre of the discs are different sizes of sub-millimetre holes
that were machined using laser cutting. These holes allowed the core
wire through and facilitated the dip coating processes. Holes of 100

An optical microscope (Olympus BHM, Trinocular MTV-3 with

Nikon Coolpix 990 3.34 MP Digital Camera, Japan) was used to
examine the surface morphologies of the cross section structure of the
device. The sample was prepared by sealing the thread in Araldite
and leaving it overnight to solidify. It was then polished using

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sandpaper (P1250, P2500 and P4000) and gamma alumina powder of

size from 1 m to 0.025 m, rinsed using deionised water and
methanol, and then dried in air.

2.5 Solar powered LED lighting

Solar powered garden light was bought from a Poundland shop. It
consist of four 2.2 0.6 cm solar cells in parallel, 1.2 V NiH-M
battery and a LED bulb; there is a circuit inside which amplify
operating voltage to above 1.5 V the minimum voltage required for
driving a LED red. When sunlight is available, the battery is charged.
Otherwise, the battery would discharge and light a LED. For the
lighting test, the battery was replaced by a CTSC.

Fig. 3 (a) Photo of a 70 cm long CTSC on a bobbin and (b) Crosssection optical image of the CTSC

3.2 A coaxial single CTSC characterisation

Electrochemical performance of the 70 cm long CTSC was
studied using cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy and galvanostatic charge-discharge cycling as shown in
Fig. 4. Fig. 4a shows typical cyclic voltammograms recorded at
different scan rates (5, 20, 50, 100 and 200 mV s-1) between 0 V and 1
V. It can be seen that the charge current increases with scan rate. The
capacitive rectangular CV shape is distorted, and the distortion
becomes more pronounced when scan rate is increased. This might be
explained by the series resistances including gel electrolyte, diffusion
processes in the porous carbon nanostructure, electrical resistance of
the porous carbon network and the wire resistance [19]. No faradaic
processes were noted, which demonstrated the good stability of the
stainless steel wire and the silver paint layer current collectors.
Capacitance can be estimated by equation (1)

2.6 Electrochemical characterisation

Electrochemical measurements were performed using a
VersaSTAT 3.0 (Princeton Applied Research) electrochemical
workstation. A two-electrode setup was used throughout the
experiments. The core stainless steel and a thin copper microwire
embedded in the silver paint layer served as working and counter
electrodes respectively. The working electrode (stainless steel wire)
was kept positive with respect to the counter electrode to prevent
oxidation of the silver current collector. Electrochemical impedance
spectra were determined at open circuit potential using a 5 mV AC
modulation for a frequency ranged from 100 kHz down to 0.01 Hz.
Cyclic
voltammetry,
galvanostatic
charge-discharge
and
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were
used to evaluate the performance of the supercapacitors.

3. Results and discussion

(1)

Where C is the capacitance; i is the current; dV is the rate of

change of sampling potential, v is the scan rate and V is the potential
window. The capacitance as a function of scan rate is shown in Fig.
4b. At 5 mV s-1, a specific length capacitance of 0.3 mF cm-1 was
obtained, and this value decreases sharply before the scan rate reaches
50 mVs-1, and then followed by decreasing gradually with increasing
scan rate further. Length capacitances ranged from 0.3 to 0.024 mF
cm-1 were obtained as scan rate varies from 5 to 200 mV s-1. Areal
and total volume specific capacitances were also calculated, the
surface area is defined only by 1st ink layer (1.9 cm2), and the total
volume includes two ink layers (0.0097 cm3) and gel electrolyte
separator, corresponding specific areal and volume capacitances were
11 to 0.9. mF cm-2 and 2.162 to 0.175 F cm-3 respectively. These
results are higher than those in our previous report [17] and
comparable to those of reported fibre supercapacitors recently [15,
20]. Fig. 4c shows an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
Nyquist plot performed at 5 mV AC perturbation for a frequency
range of 100 kHz down to 0.01 Hz. An electrical series resistance
(ESR) of 140 was obtained, which originated from wire resistances,
contact resistances between collectors and active carbon material,
electrical resistance of carbon active material and electrical resistance
of gel electrolyte throughout the whole device. The specific length
resistance is 2 cm-1 which is smaller than those reported for

3.1 Structure characterisation

Fig. 3 shows a photo of a 70 cm CTSC wound onto a bobbin
together with 50 m stainless steel wire (a) and the cross-section
image of a typical CTSC (b). From Fig. 3b, it can be seen that the
coaxial thread supercapacitor has a cross-section diameter of about
0.25 mm. A circular geometry and uniformity for each active layer of
ink/gel/ink are observed as shown in Fig. 3b, and the thickness of the
three active layers was measured as 18/10/17.5 m respectively. A
range of thread supercapacitors with different lengths were
manufactured.

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previous fibre supercapacitors [15, 21, 22]. This ESR value is the
partly made up by the inherent resistance of the core which has a
specific resistance of 4 cm-1. No EIS semicircle is observed in the
higher frequency range, which if present would represent a main
contributor to leakage current. The characteristic frequency f0 for a
phase angle of 45 is about 0.04 Hz, at this frequency, the resistive
and capacitive impedance are equal [23]. The corresponding time
constant 0 (= 1/f0) equals 25 s which is longer than the 10 s for a
conventional activated carbon based supercapacitor. A slow diffusion
process is noted as the slope trends upwards from middle to low
frequencies as transmission line model predicts [24]. This is in good
agreement with the results of cyclic voltammetry and chargedischarge measurements. A similar slope trend of Nyquist plots for
gel electrolyte systems has also been reported [25].

mA (a), the tenth cyclic charge-discharge curve on separate runs at

different charging currents from 0.8 mA to 2.5 mA (b), the
capacitance as a function of charge-discharge current calculated from
the discharge curves of the tenth cycles (c) and Ragone plots (d). It
can be seen from Fig. 5a that the charge-discharge curve is welldefined and symmetric; the iR drop is noted at the early stage of the
charging and discharging curves. For a particular cycle, charge and
discharge time decreases as the charge current increases, and the iR
drop increases with increasing current as expected (Fig. 5b). The
capacitance can be calculated using the following equation (2)

(2)

Where t is the discharging time, V is the actual voltage

excluding iR drop of the discharge process and other parameters have
identical meanings as before. The discharge curve was used for the
capacitance calculation. Specific length capacitances ranging from to
0.05 to 0.22 mF cm-1 were obtained for the current varying from 0.4
to 3 mA, corresponding to an areal capacitance range from 1.8 to 7.3
mF cm-2 (2.2 to 0.17 F cm-3) These results are within the reference
ranges for specific length and areal capacitances for carbon based
fibre supercapacitors, 0.02 to 6.3 mF cm-1 and 0.4 to 71 mF cm-2 have
been reported [26, 27]. These scattered values resulted from different
core sizes, cross-section areas and carbon materials employed. All
these references reported only short fibre supercapacitors of a length
less than 10 cm, which are much shorter than those presented in this
report. As shown in Fig. 5c, the capacitance decreases as the charging
current increases. This trend results from delayed charging process by
the slow diffusion at higher currents, the similar trend has been
reported for gel electrolyte super capacitors [28].
Power and energy densities are two important parameters for
evaluating the electrochemical performance of a supercapacitor. Fig.
5d A Ragone plot shows overall performance of the thread
supercapacitor. Energy E stored and power (P) of the CTSC were
calculated by equation (3) and (4) respectively:
0.5

(3)
(4)

It can be seen that the device can exhibit energy density up to 0.2
mWh cm-3 which is higher than those in reference 23 within whole
range of power densities, and comparable to MnO2 fibre
supercapacitor of an energy density of 0.22 mWh cm-3 [29].
Additionally, the device can deliver a power density up to 410 mW
cm-3 which is 3.6 times higher than that of Ref. 15. These results are
attributed to the lower volume of active layers in the device.
In order to study the supercapacitors electrochemical stability,
long term cycling of galvanostatic charge-discharge testing was
conducted for a new 70 cm long CTSC. Fig. 6 shows chargedischarge cycle curves for different cycles at 1.1 mA (a) and the
capacitance as a function of the number of cycles (b). In Fig. 6a, for
comparison, the time was rescaled by subtracting the start time of

Fig. 4 (a) Cyclic voltammograms recoded at different scan rates of 5,

20, 50, 100 and 200 mV s-1, (b) Capacitance as a function of
scan rate, and (c) Nyquist plot recorded at open circuit
potential using a 5 mV AC modulation for a frequency ranged
from 100 kHz to 0.01 Hz for a 70 cm long CTSC
Fig. 5 shows a typical galvanostatic charge-discharge curve
cycling between 0 V and 1 V, first ten cycles at a charge current of 1.0

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each charge-discharge cycle. It can be seen from Fig. 6a that the

charging discharging time is slightly getting smaller as the cycling
progressed; the charge-discharge curves were overlapped after cycles
extended beyond 1500. In Fig. 6b, it can be seen that the calculated
capacitance using equation (2) for the discharge branches of the
cycles decreases gradually with the number of cycles before 1500
cycles was reached; after that, the capacitance keeps almost constant
further with more cycles [21, 25]. 86% of initial capacitance was
retained after 1500 cycles. This demonstrates the viability and
electrochemical stability of the device for many applications.

Fig. 6 Charge-discharge stability test for the 70 cm long CTSC at 1.1

mA. (a) charge-discharge curves for different No. of cycles of
100, 500, 1000 and 1500 and (b) the capacitance as a function
of the number of cycles

3.3 Combination
supercapacitors

circuit

properties

of

two

thread

The single CSTC has limited energy storage ability, and a

limitation of an operating voltage below 1 V as the intrinsic potential
window of PVA aqueous gel electrolyte is 1 V. For devices operating
at a voltage above 1 V with high energy density requirements,
combinations of multiple CTSCs need to be assembled either in
parallel or series, or both. To exploit the applicability of the
combinations of multiple thread supercapacitors, electrical and
electrochemical properties of the basic combination electrical circuits
of two CTSCs were examined. Fig. 7a shows cyclic voltammograms
recorded at 50 mV s-1 for two 70 cm long CTSCs (S1 and S2), which
were fabricated separately, and their series and parallel combination
circuits. It can be seen that two CTSCs show almost identical cyclic
voltammograms with a 1 V potential window, which demonstrates the
coating procedure has good reproducibility. It is also noted that the
cyclic voltammogram cycle areas are doubled for parallel circuits and
one for series circuits; the potential window was extended to 2 V for
the series circuit. Approximated capacitances for series and parallel
circuits would be half and double of one CTSC. These results
illustrated that the accepted models for series and parallel capacitor
combinations were obeyed for the combined circuits of two thread
supercapacitors. No faradaic process was observed for all cases of
electrical circuit indicating the gel electrolytes stability in the system.
To quantify the combination supercapacitors further, galvanostatic
charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
measurements were employed to investigate the capacitance and
resistance for each case. Fig. 7b and Fig. 7c show Nyquist plots and
galvanostatic charge-discharge curves at charge currents of 0.6 mA
for singles and the series circuit, and 1.2 mA for the parallel circuit.

Fig. 5 (a) Galvanostatic charge-discharge curve (first ten cycles)

recorded at a charging current of 1.0 mA, (b) Galvanostatic
charge-discharge curves (10th cycle) at different charging
currents of 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mA, (c) Capacitance
as a function of charging current for the 70 cm CTSC and (d)
Ragone plot from (c)

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Potential windows of 1 V and 2 V were used for two single thread

supercapacitors and parallel circuit, and series circuit respectively.
From Fig. 7b, it can be seen that electrochemical impedance curves
for combination circuits are similar to those of two single coaxial
thread supercapacitors, and the curves are parallel with different real
Z- axis intercepts. This indicated that for all cases ion transport
phenomena are identical, a slow diffusion process in the porous nano
structure dominates. The series resistances were obtained from the
intercept with Real axis (Z) at high frequencies in Fig. 7b, and
capacitances were calculated using the equation (2) from discharge
branches in galvanostatic charge-discharge curves in Fig. 7c.

resistive and capacitive circuits. (The total resistance of resistors in

series is equal to the sum of their individual resistances; the total
capacitance of capacitors in series is equal to the reciprocal of the sum
of the reciprocals of their individual capacitances). For the case of the
parallel circuit, the total resistance and capacitance follow the rules of
total capacitance and resistance in series respectively. Good
agreement was observed for the capacitance; there was a slight
discrepancy for the series resistance, which might be due to lead
connections during the circuits switching.
Table 1 Summaries electrical series resistance (ESR) from Nyquist
plots and the capacitances from galvanostatic chargedischarge measurements together with those calculated
using theory for series and parallel circuits.
Circuit
S1
S2
Parallel
Series

Exp.
19.9
20.7
39.5
9.6

C (mF)
Theory

40.6
10.2

ESR ()
Exp.
Theory
15.1
145.5
80.5
74.1
300.5
296.5

3.4 Flexibility and uniformity of a typical CTSC

CTSCs are flexible as shown in Fig. 3, and can be wound on a
bobbin. In order to explore its potential applications as a smart
weaveable energy storage device, its uniformity of capacitance along
the fibre length is a key to predict its energy storage capacity and
verify the feasibility of the semi-automatic processing for scale-up.
Length dependent cyclic voltammetry was performed at 100 mV s-1
for a ~ 60 cm long CTSC initially, and capacitance was calculated;
and then the CTSC was cut short eleven times sequentially by each of
5 cm, and at the same time, cyclic voltammogram was recorded at
100 mV s-1. Fig.8 shows the photo of 11 sequential segments from left
to right cut off from the ~ 60 cm long CTSC (a), typical cyclic
voltammograms for the length of 10, 25 and 52 cm at 100 mV s-1 (b)
and capacitance dependence on length (c). As shown in Fig. 8a, the
thread and its cut sequences are not straight; the segments have
shapes with different curvatures. No intended bending was conducted
during the cutting. From Fig. 8b, similar capacitive shape
voltammograms with different currents for the three selected length
supercapacitors were observed, which demonstrated the
electrochemical stability and flexibility; cyclic voltammograms were
not disturbed by cutting. Calculated capacitances were 0.17, 0.4 and
0.8 mF for 10, 25 and 52 cm long coaxial thread supercapacitors
respectively. As shown in Fig. 8c, the capacitance as a function of the
thread length is pretty linear with fitting slope of 2.010-2 mF cm-1
and a R2 of 0.99, A capacitance intercept of 4.010-2 mF (offset) was
noted which was possibly due to unequal length at the beginning of
the CTSC. These results show that the thread has high uniform
capacity along its length and good flexibility, which is independent of
the thread curvatures. These results demonstrated a potential for the
thread supercapacitors as a weaveable energy storage device. Bending
and length dependent capacitance studies for shorter (< 10 cm) 1D

Fig. 7 (a) Cyclic voltammograms recorded at 50 mV s-1 for two single

supercapacitors and their electrical combinations in series and
parallel, (b) Electrochemical impedance performance of two
single CTSCs and their electrical combinations in series and
parallel using a 5 mV AC modulation for a frequency range of
100 kHz to 0.01 Hz and (c) Galvanostaic charge-discharge
curves of the 10th cycles of each case, for single and series
circuit, 0.6 mA was used, and 1.2 mA for the parallel circuit.
In Table 1, the electrical series resistance (ESR) and capacitance
data from the experiments were tabulated together with values
predicted by the accepted circuit models for series and parallel

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fibre supercapacitors have been reported by deliberately creating

curvatures [20, 30]. Woven supercapacitors were also reported [17,
31]. It is worth noting that this CTSC was tested six months after it
was fabricated.

series combinations of a couple of fibre supercapacitors [15], which

were charged using a potentiostat.

Fig. 9 Solar powered LED lit by a 85 cm long CTSC, (a) Charging by

solar cells and (b) Discharging to light a red LED

4. Conclusion and outlook

Flexible CTSCs were fabricated in a concentric structure of
multiple layer coatings using a purpose-built semi-automatic dip
coating setup. Reproducible thread supercapacitors with circular and
uniform coating layers were achieved. The devices showed a good
specific capacity and electrochemical stability with a high energy
density of 0.22 mWh cm-3 at a power density of 22 mW cm-3, and
displayed high flexibility. Two similar supercapacitors were
assembled in parallel-series patterns; the combination circuits
demonstrated well-defined electrochemical performance. The
accepted models for series and parallel circuit combinations are
obeyed well for both capacitances calculated from charge-discharge
measurements and resistances recorded from electrochemical
impedance measurements. A length dependent capacitance study
demonstrated the device has high uniformity. Mass production of the
thread supercapacitors is feasible by enlarging the semi-automatic
process to a continuous process for commercial applications in
miniaturized and flexible electronic devices. An automatic multiple
layer dip coating process is under design. This design will allow an
unlimited length thread supercapacitor to be produced continuously
by controlling the thickness of each coating layer, the thread winding
speed, the viscosity of each coating slurry and the vaporizing
temperature of the solvent in each slurry.

Fig. 8 (a) Photo of cut segments during length dependent cyclic

voltammetric
measurements,
(b)
Selected
cyclic
voltammograms recorded at 100 mV s-1 for three different
lengths CTSCs of 10, 25 and 52 cm long, and (c) Calculated
capacitance at 100 mV s-1 as a function of CTSC length

3.5 Integration with solar powered device

Solar energy devices have become popular when combined with
low power and voltage LED for home and garden decoration. To
demonstrate the potential applications of this flexible solid-state
energy storage device, we have modified a garden solar LED light by
replacing the 1.2 V NiH-M battery with a 85 cm long CTSC. Fig. 9
shows a setup for demonstration using a 85 cm long CTSC-solar
power charging process (a) and discharging to light a LED (b). A
solar powered garden light was fixed onto one side of a black plastic
box from the inside; the LED bulb protrudes from the side of the box
through a hole in the wall section. When the box is open and facing
sunlight, the CTSC is charged (Fig. 9a); when the box is closed, the
thread discharges and lights the LED red as shown in Fig. 9b. For a
few seconds charge in a bright sunlight environment, it lighted the
LED for 3 s from bright to dim. This result reveals the potential
applications of the flexible, all-solid state coaxial thread in green
energy storage. LED lighting has been reported using parallel and

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research leading to these results has received funding from

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the Powerweave project in the European Union Seventh Framework

Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 281063.
[12]

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