Roll-to-Roll production of carbon nanotubes based supercapacitors

Carbon nanomaterials provide an excellent platform for electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLCs). However, current industrial methods for producing carbon nanotubes are expensive and thereby increase the costs of energy storage to more than {\$}10 Wh/kg. In this regard, we developed a facile roll-to-roll production technology for scalable manufacturing of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) with variable density on run-of-the-mill kitchen Al foils. Our method produces MWNTs with diameter (heights) between 50-100 nm (10-100 $\mu$m), and a specific capacitance as high as $\sim$ 100 F/g in non-aqueous electrolytes. In this talk, the fundamental challenges involved in EDLC-suitable MWNT growth, roll-to-roll production, and device manufacturing will be discussed along with electrochemical characteristics of roll-to-roll MWNTs.