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Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes

Soft electrodes have been known as a key component in the engineering of flexible, wearable, and implantable energy-saving or powering devices. As environmental issues are emerging, the increase of electronic wastes due to the short replacement cycle of electronic products has become problematic. To...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kim, Jong Sik, Kim, Ju-Hyung, Cho, Younghyun, Shim, Tae Soup
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6572220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31091674
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11050875
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author Kim, Jong Sik
Kim, Ju-Hyung
Cho, Younghyun
Shim, Tae Soup
author_facet Kim, Jong Sik
Kim, Ju-Hyung
Cho, Younghyun
Shim, Tae Soup
author_sort Kim, Jong Sik
collection PubMed
description Soft electrodes have been known as a key component in the engineering of flexible, wearable, and implantable energy-saving or powering devices. As environmental issues are emerging, the increase of electronic wastes due to the short replacement cycle of electronic products has become problematic. To address this issue, development of eco-friendly and recyclable materials is important, but has not yet been fully investigated. In this study, we demonstrated hydrogel-based electrode materials composed of agarose and spherical activated carbon (agar/SAC) that are easy to shape and recycle. Versatile engineering processes were applied thanks to the reversible gelation of the agarose matrix which enables the design of soft electrodes into various shapes such as thin films with structural hierarchy, microfibers, and even three-dimensional structures. The reversible sol–gel transition characteristics of the agar matrix enables the retrieval of materials and subsequent re-configuration into different shapes and structures. The electrical properties of the agar/SAC composite gels were controlled by gel compositions and ionic strength in the gel matrix. Finally, the composite gel was cut and re-contacted, forming conformal contact to show immediate restoration of the conductivity.
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spelling pubmed-65722202019-06-18 Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes Kim, Jong Sik Kim, Ju-Hyung Cho, Younghyun Shim, Tae Soup Polymers (Basel) Article Soft electrodes have been known as a key component in the engineering of flexible, wearable, and implantable energy-saving or powering devices. As environmental issues are emerging, the increase of electronic wastes due to the short replacement cycle of electronic products has become problematic. To address this issue, development of eco-friendly and recyclable materials is important, but has not yet been fully investigated. In this study, we demonstrated hydrogel-based electrode materials composed of agarose and spherical activated carbon (agar/SAC) that are easy to shape and recycle. Versatile engineering processes were applied thanks to the reversible gelation of the agarose matrix which enables the design of soft electrodes into various shapes such as thin films with structural hierarchy, microfibers, and even three-dimensional structures. The reversible sol–gel transition characteristics of the agar matrix enables the retrieval of materials and subsequent re-configuration into different shapes and structures. The electrical properties of the agar/SAC composite gels were controlled by gel compositions and ionic strength in the gel matrix. Finally, the composite gel was cut and re-contacted, forming conformal contact to show immediate restoration of the conductivity. MDPI 2019-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6572220/ /pubmed/31091674 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11050875 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kim, Jong Sik
Kim, Ju-Hyung
Cho, Younghyun
Shim, Tae Soup
Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes
title Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes
title_full Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes
title_fullStr Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes
title_full_unstemmed Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes
title_short Agarose/Spherical Activated Carbon Composite Gels for Recyclable and Shape-Configurable Electrodes
title_sort agarose/spherical activated carbon composite gels for recyclable and shape-configurable electrodes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6572220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31091674
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11050875
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