ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Phys.
Sec. Interdisciplinary Physics
Scalable Solution-Cast Flexible Graphite Sheet Current Collectors for Flexible Solid-State Supercapacitors
VIT University, Vellore, India
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Abstract
Designing mechanically compliant energy storage systems for wearables and portable devices remains challenging. Traditional metal-based current collectors face issues like rigidity and interfacial instability. To overcome these limitations, the flexible graphite sheet current collector is fabricated by solution casting a 50:50 wt% graphite:PVC composite, and its electrical performance is tested under various bending conditions. The conductivity and surface roughness of the graphite sheet are 2608.53 ± 231.6 S m-1 (mean ± SD, n = 3) and 16.74 nm, respectively. Further, to study the interaction between the electrode and electrolyte on the graphite substrate, flexible supercapacitors are fabricated using acid-functionalized carbon nanotubes as the electrode material, which is chosen due to its continuous electron transport even under bending. The electrochemical studies are carried out using electrolytes of Na₂SO₄, H₂SO₄, and KOH. The three-electrode configuration exhibited the maximum specific capacitance of 2913 mF g-1 in 1 M Na₂SO₄. The fabricated flexible symmetric supercapacitor device with PVA-H2SO4 exhibited a high specific capacitance of 578 mF g-1 at a current density of 5 mA g-1 (6 mg active material), rate capability of 87% (the specific capacitance retained at 15 mA g-1 relative to 5 mA g-1), and 77% capacitance retention even after 10000 cycles. Overall, the developed flexible conductive platform provides new insights into graphite-mediated current collector engineering and demonstrates strong potential for next-generation wearable energy storage systems.
Summary
Keywords
flexible current-collector, flexible supercapacitors, Functionalized carbon nanotubes, Graphite sheet, Solid-state supercapacitor, Wearable energy storage
Received
26 June 2026
Accepted
24 August 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Selvaraj and Sreekantan Thampy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Anand Sreekantan Thampy
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