(398m) Construction and Intelligent Manipulation of Nanocarbon Composite Electrodes Toward Energy Storage and Mechanical Conversion Devices

Carbon nanotube and graphene with excellent electrical, mechanical, electrochemical and electromechanical properties have achieved remarkable progress and achievements in the fields of functional materials, energy and environment, especially in supercapacitors and actuators. A new electrochemical device, which is composed of one ion-conductive electrolyte membrane laminated by two electron-conductive electrode membranes can not only store electric energy but also convert to mechanical motion. Since the electrochemical performance is mainly controlled by the electro-chemical-mechanical process of electrode layer, the electrode materials and structure become more crucial. However, due to the complexly disordered microstructure and low electrochemical activity of electrode, the viable performance is discouraged. Herein, based on the guidance of charge directional migration and short-range diffusion, we design the microstructure (porous network, anisotropic and vertically aligned structure) and electrochemical activity (metal oxide composite, nitrogen doping and electropolymerized conducting polymer) of electrodes, and obtain a high performance electrochemical device with large electric storage and high mechanical conversion behaviors. Based on these excellent properties, we successfully realize variously low energy driven devices with multiple degrees of freedom motion such as linear motion, snake crawling movement and flapping flight, and we believe it will be of great potential for practical application.