Flexible free standing electrodes based on laser-irradiated PVC/PVDF/AuNPs for the development of high performance supercapacitor electrodes

Free-standing PVC/PVDF/Au NPs composite have been successively synthesized and irradiated to laser at various times 2, 5, and 15 min. The as-prepared composite films have been investigated by FTIR, XRD, FESEM, UV, DSC, and TGA. FTIR and XRD techniques proved the complexation between PVC/PVDF and Au NPs. Optical properties like band gap energy and Urbach tail are calculated. Also, thermal analysis affirmed that thermal stability is increased by the addition of Au NPs. The prepared films were employed as flexible substrates for supercapacitors applications. The electrochemical features of prepared composite films were measured using varieties of electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), as well as galvanostatic charge-discharge (CD) in three electrode configurations. PVC-PVDF/Au NPs that were subjected to 15 min laser radiation delivered the highest specific capacitance of (645.3 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g), improved rate capacitance (63.2 % of original value is retained at a current density of 10 A/g.